https://github.com/cosmic-utils/camera
Camera application for the COSMIC™ desktop environment
https://github.com/cosmic-utils/camera
Last synced: 4 months ago
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Camera application for the COSMIC™ desktop environment
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/cosmic-utils/camera
- Owner: cosmic-utils
- License: gpl-3.0
- Created: 2025-04-03T18:23:52.000Z (about 1 year ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2026-01-13T01:21:35.000Z (5 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2026-01-13T10:53:39.632Z (5 months ago)
- Language: Rust
- Size: 17.7 MB
- Stars: 22
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 4
- Open Issues: 34
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE.md
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# Camera
[](https://flathub.org/apps/io.github.cosmic_utils.camera)
[](https://github.com/cosmic-utils/camera/actions/workflows/ci.yml)
[](https://github.com/cosmic-utils/camera/actions/workflows/release.yml)
A camera application for the [COSMIC](https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-epoch) desktop environment.
[View more screenshots](preview/README.md)
## Status
This is a personal project by [Frederic Laing](https://github.com/FreddyFunk). It is not affiliated with or endorsed by System76. The application may be contributed to System76 or the COSMIC project in the future if there is interest.
## Installation
### Flatpak (Recommended)
```bash
# Install from Flathub
flatpak install flathub io.github.cosmic_utils.camera
# Or install from a downloaded .flatpak bundle
flatpak install camera-x86_64.flatpak
```
### From Source
#### Dependencies
- Rust (stable)
- GStreamer 1.0 with plugins (base, good, bad, ugly)
- libwayland
- libxkbcommon
- libinput
- libudev
- libseat
#### Build
```bash
# Install just command runner
cargo install just
# Build release binary
just build-release
# Install to system
sudo just install
```
## CLI Usage
The camera application supports several command-line modes for headless operation:
```bash
camera # Launch GUI (default)
camera --help # Show help
camera list # List available cameras
camera photo # Take a photo
camera video # Record a video
camera terminal # Terminal mode viewer
```
### List Cameras
```bash
camera list
```
Shows available cameras with their supported formats:
```
Available cameras:
[0] Laptop Webcam Module (V4L2)
Formats: 1920x1080@30fps, 1280x720@30fps, 640x480@30fps
```
### Take a Photo
```bash
camera photo [OPTIONS]
```
**Options:**
- `-c, --camera ` - Camera index from `camera list` (default: 0)
- `-o, --output ` - Output file path (default: ~/Pictures/camera/IMG_TIMESTAMP.jpg)
**Examples:**
```bash
camera photo # Quick photo with defaults
camera photo -o ~/snapshot.jpg # Custom output path
camera photo -c 1 # Use second camera
```
### Record a Video
```bash
camera video [OPTIONS]
```
**Options:**
- `-c, --camera ` - Camera index from `camera list` (default: 0)
- `-d, --duration ` - Recording duration (default: 10)
- `-o, --output ` - Output file path (default: ~/Videos/camera/video_TIMESTAMP.mp4)
- `-a, --audio` - Enable audio recording
**Examples:**
```bash
camera video # 10 second video
camera video -d 30 # 30 second video
camera video -d 60 -a # 1 minute with audio
camera video -c 1 -d 30 -o out.mp4 # Camera 1, custom output
```
Press `Ctrl+C` to stop recording early.
### Process Images
Process images through computational photography pipelines.
```bash
camera process [OPTIONS] ...
```
#### Night Mode
Multi-frame denoising and HDR+ pipeline for low-light photography.
```bash
camera process night-mode [OPTIONS] ...
```
**Arguments:**
- `...` - One or more image files (PNG, DNG) or a directory containing images
**Options:**
- `-o, --output ` - Output directory for processed images (default: `/output` or `~/Pictures/camera`)
**Examples:**
```bash
camera process night-mode /path/to/burst/ # Process all images in directory
camera process night-mode img1.png img2.png img3.png # Process specific files
camera process night-mode /path/to/burst/ -o /output/ # Custom output directory
```
The pipeline automatically:
- Selects the sharpest frame as reference
- Aligns all frames to the reference using GPU-accelerated pyramid alignment
- Merges frames using FFT-based frequency domain denoising
- Applies tone mapping with shadow recovery
- Outputs as DNG
### Terminal Mode (For the Brave)
Ever wanted to see your face rendered in glorious Unicode? Wonder what you'd look like as a half-block character? Well, wonder no more!
```bash
camera terminal
```
**Controls:**
- `s` - Switch camera (cycle through available cameras)
- `q` or `Ctrl+C` - Return to the real world
**Why does this exist?**
- SSH into your server and check if you left the oven on (assuming your oven has a camera)
- Finally achieve your dream of becoming ASCII art
- Prove to your coworkers that you *can* attend video calls from a TTY
- Because we could
**Note:** Your terminal needs true color support (most modern terminals have this). If you see a sad mosaic of wrong colors, try a different terminal emulator. Also, this won't make you more photogenic - trust us, we tried.
## Development
```bash
# Run with debug logging
just run
# Run with verbose debug logging
just run-debug
# Format code
just fmt
# Run all checks (format, cargo check, tests)
just check
# Run clippy lints
just clippy
# Run tests only
just test
```
### Distrobox (Atomic Desktops)
For development on atomic/immutable desktops (Fedora Silverblue, Kinoite, Bazzite, etc.):
```bash
# Create the development container
distrobox assemble create
# Enter the container
distrobox enter camera-dev
# Build inside the container
just build-release
# Run the binary on the host (not inside distrobox)
# Camera access via PipeWire requires running on the host
./target/release/camera
# Remove when no longer needed
distrobox rm camera-dev
```
To run GUI apps from inside the container, allow local display access on your host:
```bash
xhost +si:localuser:$USER
```
Add this to `~/.distroboxrc` to make it permanent.
Note: Camera access requires PipeWire, which doesn't work reliably from inside containers. Build in distrobox, run on host for full functionality.
### Flatpak Development
```bash
# Full install (uninstalls old, installs deps if needed, builds and installs)
just flatpak-install
# Run the installed Flatpak
just flatpak-run
# Uninstall all Flatpak components
just flatpak-uninstall
# Individual steps (if needed)
just flatpak-deps # Install Flatpak SDK/runtime
just flatpak-build # Build and install Flatpak
just flatpak-clean # Remove build artifacts
```
## Acknowledgments
The exposure controls implementation was inspired by [cameractrls](https://github.com/soyersoyer/cameractrls), a camera controls GUI for Linux.
### Night Mode Feature
The night mode photo feature implements a simplified version of the HDR+ algorithm, with implementation guidance from:
- **hdr-plus-swift** by Martin Marek ([GitHub](https://github.com/martin-marek/hdr-plus-swift)) - GPL-3.0
- Hierarchical pyramid alignment with L1/L2 hybrid cost functions
- FFT-based frequency domain merging
- Spatial domain merge algorithm
- Noise estimation techniques
- **Google HDR+ Paper** - "Burst photography for high dynamic range and low-light imaging on mobile cameras" (Hasinoff et al., SIGGRAPH 2016)
- [Paper](https://www.hdrplusdata.org/hdrplus.pdf)
- **Night Sight Paper** - "Handheld Mobile Photography in Very Low Light" (Liba et al., SIGGRAPH Asia 2019)
## License
Licensed under the [GNU Public License 3.0](https://choosealicense.com/licenses/gpl-3.0).
### Contribution
Any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you shall be licensed under the GNU Public License 3.0 (GPL-3.0). Each source file should have a SPDX copyright notice at the top of the file:
```
// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-only
```
### Reporting Bugs
The easiest way to report a bug is to use the **"Report a Bug"** button in the app settings. This generates a detailed system report that helps with debugging.
1. Open Camera → Settings → "Report a Bug"
2. A bug report file will be saved to `~/Pictures/camera/`
3. Your browser will open the [bug report form](https://github.com/cosmic-utils/camera/issues/new?template=bug_report_from_app.yml)
4. Attach the generated report file and describe the issue
You can also [report bugs manually](https://github.com/cosmic-utils/camera/issues/new?template=bug_report.yml) if you prefer.
### Feature Requests
Have an idea for a new feature? [Submit a feature request](https://github.com/cosmic-utils/camera/issues/new?template=feature_request.yml)!