saeugetier / photobooth

Photobooth

Overview

The goal of the project is to provide a configurable photobooth software for Raspberry Pi or a PC.

Main features are:

• User Interface with touchscreen input (input via mouse is not recommended). Control via buttons may be added in future.

• Photo preview and capture via V4L2 (Raspberry Pi Camera or Webcam) or via GPhoto2 supported cameras.

• Printout with Canon Selphy photo printer.

• Configurable image collages with own templates. User can select current template in application.

• Password protected settings menu:

  • Copy all photos to USB storage.
  • Copy collage templates form USB storage.
  • Disable printing.

• Brightness of LED preview and flash lights can be adjusted.

                             .------------. Current .---------.
                             | LED Driver |-------->| 20W LED |
                             '------------'         '---------'
                                ^
                                |
                             PWM|          .-----------------------.
                                |          |     DSLR Camera       |
                                |          | connected via GPhoto2 |
                .------------------.       |     or raspi cam      |
                |      Raspi       |<------|        via v4l2       |          -.-.-,~ .   
                |    Application   |       |                       |          )     (     
                |                  |       '-----------------------'          |_    |     
                |     based on     |                                          /(_)---`\   
                |     QT/Quick     |                                         (_      -'   
                |                  |           .-------------.                ]      |    
                |                  |           | Touchscreen |                |    _,')   
                |                  |  USB/VGA  |             |                [_,-'_-'(   
                |                  |---------->|             |               (_).-'    \  
                |                  |           |             |               / /        \ 
                '------------------'           |             |
                         |                     '-------------'
                     USB |
                         |
                         v 
                      Storage
                     _.-----._   
                   .-         -.
                   |-_       _-|
                   |  ~-----~  |
                   |           |
                   `._       _.'
                      "-----"   
  

Technology

Software

Framework: Qt 5.11 or higher - https://qt.io

Used camera: Photo camera connected via USB with GPhoto2 - See supported cameras: http://www.gphoto.org/proj/libgphoto2/support.php Qt GPhoto2 plugin: https://github.com/dept2/qtmultimedia-gphoto

Yocto Linux: The main target of this software is the deployment with Yocto Linux. With Yocto Linux a ready to use image for the SD card can be built. The image is very small and contains only needed binaries to run the application.

Tested Hardware

Platform: Tested on PC plattform, Raspberry Pi 3B and Raspbarry Pi 4 (Raspberry Pi 3 might also work)

Camera: Tested with Canon EOS 450D and Raspberry Pi camera. Every camera compatible with gPhoto2 or v4l2 will do.

Printer: Tested Canon Selphy Photo Printer CP910

Light/Flash:

• LED Driver: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/14-37-Inch-LED-LCD-Universal-TV-Backlight-Constant-Current-Board-Driver-Boost-Structure-Step-Up/32834942970.html
• 20W LED: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1Pcs-High-Power-10W-20W-30W-50W-100W-COB-Integrated-LED-Lamp-Chip-SMD-Bead-DC/32822371892.html

Display: A touchscreen is highly recommended

RTC: If using a Raspberry Pi, it is recommended to use a realtime clock.

Housing / Electronics

My own housing is documented in a seperate git repository: https://github.com/saeugetier/photobooth_hardware

Housing: Plywood 8mm - Cutting via lasercutter. Template generated with http://festi.info/boxes.py/

Deployment / Installation

Yocto Linux on a Raspberry Pi

In order to get the best performance and integration, the recipes for Yocto can be used: https://github.com/saeugetier/poky-photobooth

Prebuild images will be available soon. For more information how to create an own image for deployment on SD card, please look into the repository.

Raspbian an a Raspberry Pi

Minimum Raspbian Buster must be used, which provides QT 5.11 development packages. In order to use GPhoto2 cameras, the Qt GPhoto2 plugin must be installed.

For now there is no further support for deployment on Raspbian.

Local PC

At least QT 5.11 development packages must be installed in order to compile the application. In order to use GPhoto2 cameras, the Qt GPhoto2 plugin must be installed.

For now there is no further support for deployment on local pc.

Configuration

Configuration file

The local configuration file is stored in /home//.config/saeugetier/qtbooth.conf The file contains all application settings and the pin code for the settings menu password protection (only numbers are supported). Default pin code is: 0815

Template files

The local template files for your collage images are stored in /home//.local/share/saeugetier/qtbooth

It contains:

• Background images for the image collages
• The "Collages.xml" describing all image collages
• Border images

The templates can be imported from USB storage. All files with extension "xml,jpg,png,svg" in the folder "layout" will be copied to local template folder.