Opencv Interface - How Can I Use It In Maya?

[yorch]

Hello everybody,

I'm working right now in my final thesis. I want to use the fantastic
Python support from Maya 8.5 (as I see it includes an interpreter
based on Python v2.4, right?).

The OpenCV Python interface looks nice ... so I'd like to make some
developments together with Maya.
I have some Python skills and knowledge about how to make object-
oriented programming with it, etc. So my problem so far is how can I
use OpenCV Python interface in Maya scripts? Have tried several ways
of configuring maya with the interface path, so when I call 'import
opencv.cv' for example the system cant find the opencv interface. I
can run the examples without any problem, so I think my OpenCV is
properly installed. I have read and checked some tutorials online but
cant find a good explanation of how can I do this.

Is there anybody with experience in both fields (OpenCV and Maya)?

Thanks in advance for your attention.

J

[joojaa]

If you have python istalled then it went there you will need to map the python directories that apply to opencv into the mayas python environemnt. (remebetr 2 pythons are not as easy to manage as 1)

Usually the most straightforward way is just to add more paths to pythonpath

PS. theres actually nothing that states you couldn't have used opencv algorithms earlier than after alias implemented python scripting.

[yorch]

Thanks for the info, I'll try this.
Is there any problem in using Python 2.5 instead of 2.4 (Python version included at Maya8.5)?

The Maya docs recomends using the same version, but dont know if using latest Python will cause any problem.

I decided to start using python in this 8.5 because the Maya API documentation.

[joojaa]

well it ight just plain not work. It should but thares no guarantee. And ebven if you had python 2.4 installed yoiusd still have 2 different pythons one hats in your maya and one thats not.

Also it geratly depends on what you do, so if you just send commands to maya then no deal (but thenagain you could have done this as far as maya had the command port command. wich is as far as i remember forever) but if you do plugs then its a nother mattter

[soopagenius]

Definitely do as Joojaa suggests and add the path to the open cv python extensions to your PYTHONPATH. Alternatively, you can put this in your scripts:

import sys
sys.path.append('')

import opencv.cv

Dunno if there is anything special about the build of Python 2.4 that ships with 8.5, but worse case is you would have to rebuild the opencv python bindings (the opencv distribution comes with makefiles and visual studio projects), and link against the python libs that ship with maya (if it ships with the libs, that is)

Nuther thing you could try short of rebuilding is the ctypes binding. No binary extension required. You will need the ctypes library, which isn't part of the python 2.4 distribution (it's part of the 2.5 standard library). You can get the ctypes binding here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...lease\_id=509128

courtesy of this site:

http://wwwx.cs.unc.edu/~gb/wp/blog/2007/02...r-using-ctypes/

I use opencv a lot at work, and I've written a couple maya plug-ins using it (for instance, an optical-flow driven force field, and a couple other things). What are your plans for using opencv in maya?

Good luck!

Kevin Atkinson