Synchronized reading from multiple webcams using v4l2 on Linux

Due to buffering, getting synchronized real-time video from a single or multiple webcams is difficult, if not impossible. This framework is intended fix just that.

When using multiple cameras, it is a requirement that they support the same configuration.

Installation

sudo apt install libjpeg-turbo8-dev libjpeg-dev cmake
python setup.py install for system-wide installation
python setup.py install --user for user-specific installation

Use

Multiple cams:

import multicam as mc
with mc.Multicam(['/dev/video0','/dev/video2'], (640,480), 'YUYV', fps=30) as cs:
    try:
        while True: 
            res = cs.read() #RGB images
            print(res.shape)
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        pass

Single cam:

import multicam as mc
with mc.Camera(0, (640,480), 'YUYV', fps=30) as c:
    print(c.read().shape)

Various utils:

import multicam as mc
print(mc.list_cams())
print(mc.is_valid_device("/dev/video0"))
print(mc.get_formats("/dev/video0"))