HasciiCam – html refreshed ascii video cam

HasciiCam enables users to publish live ascii video on the web. It captures video from a tv card and renders it into ASCII letters, formatting the output into an html page with a refresh tag, or in a live ASCII window, or in a simple text file.

The software enables users with a tv card, Linux box, and a cheap modem line to show live (h)ascii video which can be viewed without any need for extra applications, plugins, Java etc.

Hasciicam grabs video using Video4Linux api: gets a YUV422 plane and uses the luminance component to obtain a grayscale frame, then renders each frame into hascii using the AA-lib engine, armoring it in a html with a refresh tag.

Hasciicam is written in plain C and is operated via command line.

When using a usb webcam, a supported size needs to be specified. The minimum or maximum detected size should work, also a size of 160×120 mostly gives good results, with unsupported sizes you will get unexpected results.

Features include:

  • Low bandwidth live cam “streaming”.
  • Command line settings.
  • Customizable refresh rate.
  • Live mode.
  • Gives you the coolest .plan you ever had.
  • Draws nifty symbols on your face.

Website: www.dyne.org/software/hasciicam
Support: Documentation, Twitter, Mailing List, GitHub
Developer: Jaromil (also known as Denis Roio) and contributors
License: GNU GPL v2

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