Camera image over MQTT

[BetterAuto]

@bucknall said in Camera image over MQTT:

Hi @robmarkcole

This is definitely possible over WiFi as there are working examples written in C for the ESP32, however I'm yet to see this ported to MicroPython so it might be a while before you're able to do it specifically in MicroPython.

Here's a link to the example I'm referencing written in C;

https://github.com/igrr/esp32-cam-demo

I see that project converts color pictures into ASCII art. Can anyone enumerate some other options for capturing color pictures and sending via network, LoRa or otherwise? I know of the Arducam, what else?

Anything native to the ESP32 that can just connect one of the Onvif cameras (OV7670, OV2640) and send?

[phusy012]

@robmarkcole Hi wondering, if you have completed the project. We are also trying to connect camera(with low resolution) to Lopy4 and obtain the still image, convert into ASCII, break down into chunks and send it through LoRa.

Would appreciate your guidance on how you did.

Thankyou
Regards
Sonam

[smzk2001]

@phusy012 Hello Phusy012: I am trying to send image file to some back-end server via NBIoT technology. I would really appreciate if you may share some information that you might have collected related to your project.
I can be contacted at: smzk2001@gmail.com

[jcaron]

@smzk2001 NB-IOT is barely better than LoRa. With a peak rate of 26 kbits/s, it’s going to take forever to transmit a picture.

Exactly how long will depend a lot on the resolution, number of channels (i.e. grayscale vs colour), depth (number of bits per channel), compression, nature of the image...

A very basic 640 x 480 black and white (literally: 1 bit per pixel, not grayscale) uncompressed picture will take over 10 seconds to transmit. A 2 megapixels 24-bit colour picture, uncompressed, will take half an hour. Even if compressed, it will take minutes. Higher resolution pictures will quickly take hours.

NB-IOT is definitely not designed for this purpose. Cat-M1 would be barely better.

Depending on your exact application (picture parameters as described above, frequency or frame rate...), you’ll have to either switch to a much higher bandwidth technology (“full” LTE, WiFi...) or if relevant switch to local processing of the image to send only the result of the processing (e.g. “a move was detected” or “3 people were present”) rather than the image itself.

Of course, in either case, battery life will quickly become an issue.

[smzk2001]

This post is deleted!

[jcaron]

@smzk2001 I’m not sure I understand your issue. If you can send a few bytes then surely you can send thousands?

[smzk2001]

@jcaron Dear Jcaron: Tnx for your reply. Sorry, if I couldn't make it clear. But, I now I have made it to sending a few hundreds of bytes now (upto 1KB). As soon as I am done with the final project, I will share my updates.