Using OpenCV and pySerial to send images over the serial interface

In this recipe, we will emulate a camera sensor that can communicate with the Raspberry Pi Pico through the serial interface using a local Python script.

This Python script will be able to capture images from the webcam using OpenCV and, upon the microcontroller’s request, transmit its pixels over the serial interface.

Getting ready

The Python script we will develop in this recipe can be considered a software program that emulates the functionality of a camera sensor we may intend to use in production. Our target platform is often not equipped with all the required hardware components during the initial prototyping stage. Nevertheless, running the model on the microcontroller might still be necessary. Some of these reasons might be for testing the model functionality or gather preliminary latency performance data.

The Python script we aim to develop in this recipe exploits the OpenCV (https:...