How to Control Raspberry Pi Camera with GUI Using Python/PyQt5/Picamera2

Raspberry Pi cameras are widely used for a variety of projects, whether it’s for home surveillance, wildlife monitoring, or simply capturing beautiful images. In this tutorial, we will show you how to control your Raspberry Pi camera with a graphical user interface (GUI) using Python, PyQt5, and Picamera2.

Setting up Picamera2:

First, you need to install the Picamera2 library on your Raspberry Pi. You can do this by running the following command:

pip install picamera

Setting up PyQt5:

Next, you need to install PyQt5 on your Raspberry Pi. You can do this by running the following command:

sudo apt-get install python3-pyqt5

Creating the GUI:

Now, let’s create a simple GUI using PyQt5 that allows you to control your Raspberry Pi camera. Here is an example code snippet:


import sys
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication, QWidget, QPushButton
from picamera import PiCamera

class CameraGUI(QWidget):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__()

self.camera = PiCamera()

self.start_button = QPushButton('Start Recording', self)
self.start_button.clicked.connect(self.start_recording)

self.stop_button = QPushButton('Stop Recording', self)
self.stop_button.clicked.connect(self.stop_recording)

self.show()

def start_recording(self):
self.camera.start_recording('video.h264')

def stop_recording(self):
self.camera.stop_recording()

if __name__ == '__main__':
app = QApplication(sys.argv)
gui = CameraGUI()
sys.exit(app.exec_())


Running the GUI:

To run the GUI, save the code above as a Python file (e.g., camera_gui.py) on your Raspberry Pi and run it using the following command:

python camera_gui.py

This will open a GUI window with two buttons for starting and stopping recording. You can customize the GUI further to add more functionalities such as taking pictures, adjusting camera settings, and more.

With this simple setup, you can now control your Raspberry Pi camera with a graphical user interface, making it easier to capture images and videos for your projects. Have fun experimenting with different features and functionalities!