Configure an Image File Camera

An image_file camera gets color and depth image frames or point clouds from a file path on your local system.

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 image_file model. Enter a name for your camera and click Create.

Configuration of an image file camera in the Viam app config builder.

Edit and fill in the attributes as applicable.

{
    "name": "<your-camera-name>",
    "type": "camera",
    "model" : "image_file",
    "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>,
        "color_image_file_path": "<your-file-path>",
        "depth_image_file_path": "<your-file-path>",
        "pointcloud_file_path": "<your-file-path>",
    }
}

The following attributes are available for image_file cameras:

NameTypeInclusionDescription
intrinsic_parametersobjectOptionalThe intrinsic parameters of the camera used to do 2D <-> 3D projections:
  • width_px: The expected width of the aligned image in pixels.
  • height_px: The expected height of the aligned image in pixels.
  • fx: The image center x point.
  • fy: The image center y point.
  • ppx: The image focal x.
  • ppy: The image focal y.
distortion_parametersobjectOptionalModified Brown-Conrady parameters used to correct for distortions caused by the shape of the camera lens:
  • rk1: The radial distortion x.
  • rk2: The radial distortion y.
  • rk3: The radial distortion z.
  • tp1: The tangential distortion x.
  • tp2: The tangential distortion y.
debugbooleanOptionalEnables the debug outputs from the camera if true.
Default: false
color_image_file_pathstringOptionalThe file path to the color image on your local system.
depth_image_file_pathstringOptionalThe file path to the depth image on your local system.
pointcloud_file_pathstringOptionalThe file path to the point cloud file on your local system.

You must specify at least one of color_image_file_path, depth_image_file_path, and pointcloud_file_path.

If you provide configuration for the depth_image_file_path and intrinsic_parameters of the camera, then your robot will also retrieve point cloud data from the depth_image_file_path. If you then also configure a pointcloud_file_path on your camera, Viam will try to pull the data from the pointcloud_file_path first.

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.

Example Camera view inside Viam app

Next Steps

Calibrate a Camera

Calibrate a camera and extract the intrinsic and distortion parameters.

transform

Instructions for transforming a camera.

Vision
Vision

The vision service enables your smart machine to use its on-board cameras to intelligently see and interpret the world around it.



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