Motion detection & video recording software based on OpenCV, built for research on Bumblebees (hence the name).
This software was built to meet the need of tracking, and/or recording clips of marked Bumblebee individuals in a scientific research project. It has been used with a Raspberry Pi 41 and a Raspberry Pi HQ Camera2 pointed at the entrance of a Bombus terrestris nest, in order to record clips of the entry/exit events, based on motion. This considerably reduced the storage space required for the recordings and completely removed the need of post processing work, since it was only recording clips in which individuals appeared in the video frame.
bombuscv-rs
offers realtime motion detection & video recording3 using
camera input and can be directly used on fieldwork. However, using the video
option, live camera input can be replaced with a pre-recorded video file: this
is useful to remove dead moments from videos and reduce/remove the need of
manual video trimming.
Below a brief example of the produced video output:
example.mp4
More examples can be found at the BombusCV YouTube channel.
For installation on RaspberryPi check Install on RaspberryPi 4.
This program requires a working installation of OpenCV (>=4.5.5
).
Building OpenCV from source is recommended (if you're going to build OpenCV
from source make sure to also install OpenCV dependencies), although it should
work with precompiled packages in your distro's repositories (it has been
tested with success on ArchLinux with the extra/opencv
package).
A package is available at crates.io. In
order to install it run cargo install bombuscv-rs
in your shell4.
It is strongly recommended to use a RaspberryPi 4 with at least 4GB of RAM.
Also, before trying to install, please enable Legacy Camera support under
Interface options running raspi-config
and reboot. Since installation on a
RaspberryPi may be a little bit tricky, an installation script is
provided5. It takes care of updating & preparing the system, compiling
OpenCV and installing Rustup and finally BombusCV. You can run the
instllation script using curl
:
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/marcoradocchia/bombuscv-rs/master/bombuscv-raspi.sh | sh
bombuscv-rs 0.3.0
Marco Radocchia <marco.radocchia@outlook.com>
OpenCV based motion detection/recording software built for research on bumblebees.
USAGE:
bombuscv [OPTIONS]
OPTIONS:
-d, --directory <DIRECTORY> Output video directory
-f, --framerate <FRAMERATE> Video capture framerate
--format <FORMAT> Output video filename format (see
<https://docs.rs/chrono/latest/chrono/format/strftime/index.html>
for valid specifiers)
-h, --help Print help information
-H, --height <HEIGHT> Video capture frame height
-i, --index <INDEX> /dev/video<INDEX> capture camera index
--no-color Disable colored output
-o, --overlay Date&Time video overlay
-q, --quiet Mute standard output
-v, --video <VIDEO> Video file as input
-V, --version Print version information
-W, --width <WIDTH> Video capture frame width
Specifying width
, height
& framerate
will make bombuscv
probe the
capture device for the closest combination of values it can provide and select
them. In other words: if you required valid options, they will be used,
otherwhise bombuscv
will adapt those to the closest available combination6.
Note that video
option, which runs bombuscv
with a pre-recorded video
input, is incompatible with framerate
, width
, height
and overlay
. Also,
if these options are specified in the configuration file, they are going to be
ignored. This because the first two are auto-detected from the input file while
the last makes no sense if used with a non-live video feed; same rules apply to
CLI arguments.
All CLI options (except video
and no-color
) can be set in a optional configuration file
stored at $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/bombuscv/config.toml
by default or at any other
location in the filesystem specified by setting BOMBUSCV_CONFIG
environment
variable. CLI options/arguments/flags override those defined in the
configuration file. Below listed an example configuration file:
# be quiet (mute stdout)
quiet = false
# output video directory
directory = "~/output_directory/"
# output video filename format (see
# https://docs.rs/chrono/latest/chrono/format/strftime/index.html for valid specifiers)
format = "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"
# The following options are ignored if bombuscv is run with `--video` option
# /dev/video<index> camera input
index = 0
# video capture frame width
width = 640
# video capture frame height
height = 480
# video capture framerate
framerate = 30
# date&time video overlay
overlay = true
# date&time video overlay border
overlay_border = 2
Complete CHANGELOG.
- Provide build & install instructions in README, as well as the instructions to install OpenCV.
- Make install script for automated installation on RaspberryPi.
- Passing
video
ordirectory
options in the configuration file using~/<path>
results in an error: in the Deserialize expanding~
to absolute path is required. - Using
video
, date&time overlay generated on frame grabbed makes no sense: disable video overlay while usingvideo
option. - Add option to specify custom config path using env variables.
- Add option to specify (in config file or via CLI argument) a custom output video filename formatter (must be chrono DateTime syntax).
- Add thread signalling to interrupt grabber thread and gracefully terminate the execution.
- Move logic from
main
to newly definedrun
.
Join BombusCV's Discord server for installation or usage chat support:
Footnotes
-
4GB of RAM memory, powered by a 30000mAh battery power supply, which means this setup can be also reproduced in locations where no AC is available ↩
-
12.3 megapixel Sony IMX477 sensor ↩
-
Based on hardware (RasberryPi 4 at the moment of writing can handle 640x480 resolution at 60fps) ↩
-
Assuming Rust installed ↩
-
RaspberryPi OS 64 bits required in order to install using the script ↩
-
Same rules apply to configuration file ↩