PyQt showing video stream from opencv

The problem is that the function that obtains the image is executed only once and not updating the label.
The correct way is to place it inside a loop, but it will result in blocking the main window. This blocking of main window can be solved by using the QThread class and send through a signal QImage to update the label. For example:

import cv2
import sys
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import  QWidget, QLabel, QApplication
from PyQt5.QtCore import QThread, Qt, pyqtSignal, pyqtSlot
from PyQt5.QtGui import QImage, QPixmap

class Thread(QThread):
    changePixmap = pyqtSignal(QImage)

    def run(self):
        cap = cv2.VideoCapture(0)
        while True:
            ret, frame = cap.read()
            if ret:
                # https://stackoverflow.com/a/55468544/6622587
                rgbImage = cv2.cvtColor(frame, cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB)
                h, w, ch = rgbImage.shape
                bytesPerLine = ch * w
                convertToQtFormat = QImage(rgbImage.data, w, h, bytesPerLine, QImage.Format_RGB888)
                p = convertToQtFormat.scaled(640, 480, Qt.KeepAspectRatio)
                self.changePixmap.emit(p)


class App(QWidget):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        [...]
        self.initUI()

    @pyqtSlot(QImage)
    def setImage(self, image):
        self.label.setPixmap(QPixmap.fromImage(image))

    def initUI(self):
        self.setWindowTitle(self.title)
        self.setGeometry(self.left, self.top, self.width, self.height)
        self.resize(1800, 1200)
        # create a label
        self.label = QLabel(self)
        self.label.move(280, 120)
        self.label.resize(640, 480)
        th = Thread(self)
        th.changePixmap.connect(self.setImage)
        th.start()
        self.show()

Leave a Comment