Are you tired of having to pull out your smartphone or webcam every time you want to test your latest application that needs a video device to work?
Well, thanks to CamSimulate, you can test your app comfortably from your PC without needing a physical camera. It’s super flexible because you can simulate different types of cameras and play with many parameters like resolution, FOV, etc.
Technically, it’s a Python application that streams videos from a local file or a URL to the video devices on your machine, so if you don’t have a webcam available, it’s not a problem. The tool uses v4l2loopback to create a virtual video device and calls ffmpeg to stream the selected video to the device.
However, be aware that CamSimulate only works on Linux. But if that’s your case, you just need to clone the GitHub repo, install v4l2loopback with the command
sudo apt install v4l2loopback-dkmsand then run the main.py file.
All you have to do is choose your video device, select a local file or enter the direct URL of an online video, and you’re all set! But don’t use it to stream a pre-recorded video of yourself in your next work meeting to sneak off for a nap.
And on top of that, it’s free and open source. So what are you waiting for? Give it a try!
