Webcam Image Acquisition

Acquire images from webcams

You create a webcam object and then use the snapshot function to acquire images from the webcam. You can acquire a single image or set up a loop to acquire multiple images. Use the preview function to test the camera stream.

You can set device-specific properties, such as resolution and brightness, if your camera allows programmatic access. These properties vary depending on your device. To see the properties for your camera, look at the output when you create the webcam object. For information about setting properties, see Set Properties for Webcam Acquisition.

Functions

webcamlistList of webcams connected to your system
webcamConnection to a webcam
previewPreview live video data from webcam
snapshotAcquire single image frame from a webcam
closePreviewClose webcam preview window
propertyInfo Retrieve metadata for webcam properties (Since R2024a)

Live Editor Tasks

Acquire Webcam ImageAcquire snapshot from webcam in the Live Editor

Topics

  • Webcam Acquisition Overview

    You can use MATLAB® webcam support to bring live images from any USB Video Class (UVC) compliant webcam into MATLAB. Supported platforms are listed here.

  • Acquire Images from Webcams

    To acquire images from a webcam, you first create a webcam object using the webcam function. This example describes the typical workflow for acquiring images from webcams and bringing them into MATLAB.

  • Using Acquire Webcam Image Live Editor Task from Hardware Manager

    You can use MATLAB Hardware Manager to detect your webcam and run the Acquire Webcam Image Live Editor task to interactively connect to your webcam, set its properties based on the live video, and capture images.

  • Acquire Webcam Images in a Loop

    The snapshot function acquires a single image from a webcam. If you want to acquire images in a loop, you can do that with some extra programming.

  • Acquiring a Single Image in a Loop

    This example shows how to use the snapshot function to acquire live images from USB webcams.

  • Logging Video to Disk

    This example shows how to use the snapshot function to acquire live images and log the video to disk.

  • Set Properties for Webcam Acquisition

    You can set object-specific properties for the webcam object to use with any webcam. You can also set device-specific properties for a specific webcam, if supported by your device.

Featured Examples

Detect and Plot Water Level Change with USB Webcam Live Editor Task

Detect and Plot Water Level Change with USB Webcam Live Editor Task

Set up your USB webcam to detect and plot the change in water level. Interactively capture images from a USB webcam using the Acquire Webcam Image task in the Live Editor. For more information on Live Editor tasks, see Add Interactive Tasks to a Live Script.