ASCII: A Stream Capture Into Icons

Welcome to ASCII: A Stream Capture Into Icons! This project captures video frames from your webcam and converts them into a real-time ASCII art representation. The resulting ASCII art frames are displayed in a window to create a unique and artistic visualization of your video feed.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Installation
• Usage
• Configuration
• Dependencies

Features

• Real-time webcam feed conversion to ASCII art.
• Adjustable resolution and character size for ASCII representation.
• Uses FreeType for high-quality font rendering.
• Simple and easy-to-understand code.

Installation

To run this project, you'll need to have the following installed on your system:

• OpenCV (for video capture and image processing)
• FreeType (for font handling)

Here's how to set up the project:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/LewisLee26/ASCII.git
cd ASCII

# Install dependencies
# For Ubuntu/Debian based systems:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y libopencv-dev libfreetype6-dev

# For other systems, please refer to the official OpenCV and FreeType installation guidelines

# Build the project (assuming you have required build tools installed)
make 

Usage

To run the application:

./main

Make sure you have a webcam connected and the required font (JetBrainsMono) is accessible at the specified path (../fonts/JetBrainsMono-Regular.ttf). You can change the font path in the source code if needed.

While the application is running, you can press the Esc key to exit.

Configuration

You can tweak the following parameters to adjust the output:

• scaleVal: Controls the scaling of the input frame. Fine-tune this for better ASCII resolution.
• charSize: Sets the character size (width and height) based on the chosen font.

You can modify these values directly in the main() function:

float scaleVal = 0.075;
cv::Size charSize(10, 16); // Set character size based on font

Dependencies

• OpenCV: For capturing video frames and image processing.
• FreeType: For loading and rendering TTF fonts.

Ensure these dependencies are installed on your system before building the project.

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Thank you for checking out ASCII: A Stream Capture Into Icons!