Configure a FFmpeg Camera
A ffmpeg
camera uses a camera, a video file, or a stream as a camera.
Navigate to the Config tab of your robot’s page in the Viam app.
Click on the Components subtab and click Create component.
Select the camera
type, then select the ffmpeg
model.
Enter a name for your camera and click Create.
Edit and fill in the attributes as applicable.
{
"name": "<your-camera-name>",
"type": "camera",
"model" : "ffmpeg",
"attributes": {
"intrinsic_parameters": {
"width_px": <int>,
"height_px": <int>,
"fx": <float>,
"fy": <float>,
"ppx": <float>,
"ppy": <float>
},
"distortion_parameters": {
"rk1": <float>,
"rk2": <float>,
"rk3": <float>,
"tp1": <float>,
"tp2": <float>
},
"debug": <boolean>,
"video_path": "<your-video-path>",
"input_kw_args": { ... },
"filters": [
{
"name": <string>,
"args": [ "<first>", "<second>", ... ],
"kw_args": { ... }
}
],
"output_kw_args": { ... },
}
}
The following attributes are available for ffmpeg
cameras:
Name | Type | Inclusion | Description |
---|---|---|---|
video_path | string | Required | The file path to the color image. |
intrinsic_parameters | object | Optional | The intrinsic parameters of the camera used to do 2D <-> 3D projections:
|
distortion_parameters | object | Optional | Modified Brown-Conrady parameters used to correct for distortions caused by the shape of the camera lens:
|
debug | boolean | Optional | Enables the debug outputs from the camera if true .Default: false |
input_kw_args | object | Optional | The input keyword arguments. |
filters | array | Optional | The file path to the depth image. Array of filter objects that specify:
|
output_kw_args | object | Optional | The output keyword arguments. |
View the camera stream
Once your camera is configured and connected, go to the Control tab, and click on the camera’s dropdown menu. Then toggle the camera or the Point Cloud Data view to ON. If everything is configured correctly, you will see the live video feed from your camera. You can change the refresh frequency as needed to change bandwidth.

Next Steps
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