Cyclops

Simple and convenient TUI for the OBSBOT Tiny 4k webcam (or any other webcam controllable via v4l2-ctl).

The OBSBOT webcam allows to adjust its tilt, pan, and zoom via software; i.e. it's a pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera. Unfortunately, there seems to be no implementation that supports convenient WASD controls instead of providing raw numerical values. This script provides a simple TUI (text user interface) for that purpose. In addition, the TUI can also store up to 10 configurations to easily switch between, e.g. focusing on (1) the speaker of a presentation, (2) the blackboard, (3) an experimental setup, (4) the presentation slides, ...

Also see the Cyclops companion.

Prerequists

• webcam ;-)
• v4l2-ctl
• optional: ffplay for preview

Setup

• copy the script
• optional: adjust the defaults and number key mappings (default: QWERTZ keyboard) in the beginning of the script

Usage

• Start the script and, optionally, pass the device file of the webcam to control (default: /dev/video0).
• Controls
  • move camera (use upper case letters for larger steps)
    • pan: a + d
    • tilt: w + s
    • zoom: e + c
  • reset camera to "forward" direction: r
  • save configuration: <Shift> + <number>
  • apply configuration: <number
  • open preview window: p
  • quit: <ESC> (or just kill/<Ctrl> + c it)