Introduction
This application is about using a webCam to capture video to a file (
.avi). It also has an ability to schedule recording times to start the video capturing automatically. We can use any WebCam and set all kinds of properties to use with the WebCam like video size and source and the WebCam settings itself.
Background
The base for this code is using the
avicap32 DLL. With this DLL, you can connect to the webCam and set its settings.
We use
SendMessage
to send messages to the WebCam like Connect and capture video. There are a few articles about this issue, but I will try to make this a very simple one.
Using the Code
The first thing we need to do is to set our capturing control, I am using a simple
PictureBox
Control to host the output of the WebCam.
This is done with only one line of code:
mCapHwnd = capCreateCaptureWindowA("WebCap", WS_VISIBLE | WS_CHILD, 0, 0,
this.pictureBox1.Width, this.pictureBox1.Height, this.pictureBox1.Handle.ToInt32(), 0);
The next thing we need to do is to connect to our WebCam:
SendMessage(mCapHwnd, WM_CAP_CONNECT, 0, 0);
Next we need some lines of code to set the webcam settings:
SendMessage(mCapHwnd, WM_CAP_SET_PREVIEWRATE, 66, 0);
SendMessage(mCapHwnd, WM_CAP_SET_PREVIEW, 1, 0);
SendMessage(mCapHwnd, WM_CAP_DLG_VIDEOCOMPRESSION, 0, 0);
For capturing video, you must set all kinds of video properties like if you want to capture audio, etc. We need to use the
CAPTUREPARMS struct
for that, you can find its declaration inside the source code download.
The next line is using the
CAPTUREPARMS struct
to set the WebCam setting we want:
SendMessage2(mCapHwnd, WM_CAP_SET_SEQUENCE_SETUP,
new IntPtr(Marshal.SizeOf(CaptureParams)),ref CaptureParams);
One importent param in the
CAPTUREPARMS struct
is
fYield
, set this to
true
(1) if you want to capture the video in a different thread than your form.
The next thing we want to do is to capture the video in to the
PictureBox
control. We do this by calling this message:
SendMessage(mCapHwnd, WM_CAP_GRAB_FRAME_NOSTOP, 0, 0);
We need to call this line inside a timer tick event so we get a continuous video I have used a
System.Threading.Timer
to do this.
private void DoIt()
{
System.Threading.Timer t = null;
t = new System.Threading.Timer(delegate(object state)
{
t.Dispose();
CaptureImage();
DoIt();
}, null, 66, -1);
}
The next thing we need to do is to capture the video to a file (
.avi file is the default file using the avicap32.dll)
string file = DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString().Replace('/','_') +
"_" + DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString().Replace(':','_') + ".avi";
SendMessageA(mCapHwnd, WM_CAP_FILE_SET_CAPTURE_FILEA, 0, dir +
Path.DirectorySeparatorChar + file);
SendMessage(mCapHwnd, WM_CAP_SEQUENCE, 0, 0);
The next two methods are used to config the WebCam Source and Format. Use this only if you dont want to use the defaults of your WebCam.
private void btnConfig_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
SendMessage(mCapHwnd, WM_CAP_DLG_VIDEOSOURCE, 0, 0);
}
private void btnFormat_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
SendMessage(mCapHwnd, WM_CAP_DLG_VIDEOFORMAT, 0, 0);
}
The scheduling part of the code is very simple. I am using the app.config file to store the time I want to start capturing and use a Timer
control to check if it is time to start capturing. You can check this out in the source code download.
Ok, the only thing left to do it to disconnect from the WebCam when the work is done:
SendMessage(mCapHwnd, WM_CAP_DISCONNECT, 0, 0);
That's it. Hope I succeeded in keeping it simple.
Points of Interest
This is my first application using a WebCam. You can do the same with directX, but I found this method to be the fast and simple.