Python: how to capture image from webcam on click using OpenCV

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Here is a simple program that displays the camera feed in a cv2.namedWindow and will take a snapshot when you hit SPACE. It will also quit if you hit ESC.

import cv2

cam = cv2.VideoCapture(0)

cv2.namedWindow("test")

img_counter = 0

while True:
    ret, frame = cam.read()
    if not ret:
        print("failed to grab frame")
        break
    cv2.imshow("test", frame)

    k = cv2.waitKey(1)
    if k%256 == 27:
        # ESC pressed
        print("Escape hit, closing...")
        break
    elif k%256 == 32:
        # SPACE pressed
        img_name = "opencv_frame_{}.png".format(img_counter)
        cv2.imwrite(img_name, frame)
        print("{} written!".format(img_name))
        img_counter += 1

cam.release()

cv2.destroyAllWindows()

I think this should answer your question for the most part. If there is any line of it that you don’t understand let me know and I’ll add comments.

If you need to grab multiple images per press of the SPACE key, you will need an inner loop or perhaps just make a function that grabs a certain number of images.

Note that the key events are from the cv2.namedWindow so it has to have focus.

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