install-opencv-python-win.md

Install OpenCV Python Binding on Windows

1. Download OpenCV pre-built binaried from SourceForge;

2. Set the output path of self-extracting archive to D:\Bin, and all the files will be extracted to D:\Bin\opencv;

3. Copy cv2.pyd from %OPENCV%\build\python\2.7 to %PYTHON%\Lib\site-packages. Link in the OpenCV official site. Run Python to check whether it's been installed:

   Python 2.7.3 (default, Apr 10 2012, 23:31:26) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win
   32
   Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
   >>> import cv2
   >>> cv2.__version__
   '2.4.10'

4. In order to use VideoCapture, copy ffmpeg dll from %OPENCV%\sources\3rdparty\ffmpeg\opencv_ffmpeg.dll (opencv_ffmpeg_64.dll if on win64) to some directory in PATH, and rename it to opencv_ffmpeg($version_number_without_dots).dll On my machine specifically, I copied D:\Bin\opencv\sources\3rdparty\ffmpeg\opencv_ffmpeg.dll to D:\Python27\Scripts\opencv_ffmpeg2410.dll. Check this SO question for details.

5. Now it should be able to run some background subtraction demo (code modified from http://docs.opencv.org/trunk/doc/py_tutorials/py_video/py_bg_subtraction/py_bg_subtraction.html):

   import numpy as np
   import cv2
   
   cap = cv2.VideoCapture(r'SampleVideo.avi')
   fgbg = cv2.BackgroundSubtractorMOG2()
   
   while(1):
       ret, frame = cap.read()
       if not ret:
           print 'EOF'
           break
   
       fgmask = fgbg.apply(frame)
   
       cv2.imshow('frame', fgmask)
       k = cv2.waitKey(30) & 0xff
       if k == 27:
           break
   
   cap.release()
   cv2.destroyAllWindows()