Camera Capture

Control the local computer's built-in camera for capturing photos and basic operations.

Camera Control Skill

Control the local computer's built-in camera for capturing photos and basic operations.

When to Use

• User wants to take a photo using the computer camera
• User asks to capture an image from the webcam
• User wants to check the camera view
• Commands like: "拍照", "打开摄像头", "拍张照片", "camera", "webcam", "take a photo"

Tools Required

• Python 3 with OpenCV (cv2)
• Standard library only (no extra deps beyond opencv-python)

Usage

Take a Photo

Capture a single frame from the default camera:

bash

python3 skills/camera/scripts/camera.py capture --output "~/.openclaw/workspace/captures/photo_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S).jpg"

Or use the wrapper for default location:

bash

python3 skills/camera/scripts/capture.py

This saves to ~/.openclaw/workspace/captures/ with timestamp.

List Available Cameras

bash

python3 skills/camera/scripts/camera.py list

Test Camera (preview window, auto-close after 3 seconds)

bash

python3 skills/camera/scripts/camera.py preview --duration 3

Output

• Photo path is printed to stdout
• Use this path with the image tool to analyze the captured photo
• Photos are saved to captures/ directory by default

Examples

User: "拍张照片" Action: Run capture script, then use image tool to show/analyze the photo.

User: "看看摄像头画面" Action: Run preview script for 3 seconds to verify camera works.

Notes

• Default camera index is 0 (built-in webcam)
• If you have multiple cameras, use --camera 1, --camera 2, etc.
• On Windows, the script auto-detects and works with DirectShow backend
• Captures directory is auto-created if it doesn't exist