How to Configure a Camera

Instructions for configuring a webcam.
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Introduction

Cameras are a key component of many applications, such as computer vision and SLAM. This tutorial shows you how to configure a webcam (sometimes called a USB camera) as a component of your robot.

Connect and configure a webcam

First, you will need to add a webcam to your configuration. In your web browser, navigate to the robot you set up on the Viam app (https://app.viam.com).

Configure the webcam by clicking on the CONFIG tab. Go to the Builder, and create a component with Name “color” of Type “camera” and Model “webcam”.

Create component builder

Once you click Create Component, you’ll see a view on the component that looks like this:

Component attributes JSON

Manually add the camera path to the camera’s attributes and save the config. A good bet is often video0:

{
    "video_path": "video0"
}

If video0 does not work for you, you can find another potential video_path by typing the following in your terminal:

v4l2-ctl --list-devices

The output for a webcam may look like this example, in which case video1 might be the correct path to input for video_path:

C270 HD WEBCAM (usb-0000:01:00.0-1.2):
 /dev/video0
 /dev/video1
 /dev/media4

Once your camera is connected, go to the CONTROL tab, and click on the “color” dropdown menu. Toggle “View Camera” and make sure you can see the live video feed from your camera.

Camera view inside Viam app

General camera troubleshooting

Issue: I can’t see the live video feed

If you’re working on a Pi, ssh into it, then in the terminal, restart the viam-server by running:

sudo systemctl restart viam-server

If this doesn’t work, you can reboot your Pi by running:

sudo reboot

or by powering it off and on again.

Issue: The “Export Screenshot” button doesn’t work

  1. In the CONTROL tab, pick “Manual Refresh” under the “Refresh frequency”.
  2. Click the refresh button when you’re ready to take an image of the checkerboard.
  3. Right click on the image, and choose “Save Image As…” to save the image.

Save image as menu

Additional troubleshooting

You can find additional assistance in the Troubleshooting section.

You can also ask questions on the Viam Community Slack and we will be happy to help.