Digital Video Recorder for Raspberry PI cameras with Multi-Camera Synchronous Acquisition

Abstract

Video acquisition and analysis has become an integral part of scientific research. Often, using multiple cameras with synchronized acquisition yields greater accuracy in video analytics. Several commercial video systems are available as turnkey solutions for the multi-camera synchronous acquisition. Costs of these systems, however, might constrain researchers and stifle innovative research. An open-source acquisition system would allow cost-effective testing of innovative research and making research prototypes. We present an open-source digital video recorder (DVR) system for the popular Raspberry PI camera. Our DVR is simple to setup and use whether for a single camera or multiple cameras. In the case of multiple cameras, the acquisition is synchronous. The DVR comes with a graphical user interface (GUI) which allows previewing the camera streams, setting of recording parameters, and associating ‘names’ to cameras. The acquisition code as well as the DVR GUI is written in Python. The open-source software also includes GUI for playback and tools for video annotations. The versatility of the DVR is demonstrated with life science applications involving monitoring laboratory mice and fruit-flies