Image and metadata serialization/deserialization to/from json.

serialize_image.py

from scipy import misc
import json
import cv2
import time
import datetime as dt
import base64
import io
from urllib.request import urlopen


import os

# Open an image from url
url = 'https://dummyimage.com/600x400/000/fff'
with urlopen(url) as file:
    image = misc.imread(file)

'''
1. Serialization
'''
# Base64 encode image for transfer in json
jpg = cv2.imencode('.jpg', image)[1]

jpg_as_text = base64.b64encode(jpg).decode('utf-8')
# Build json object
data = {
    'image': jpg_as_text,
    'timestamp': dt.datetime.now().isoformat()
}
#Save frame as JPEG file, for debugging purpose only
with open("600x400.json", "w") as write_file:
    json.dump(data, write_file)

'''
2. Deserizalization
'''
#Open and deserializae the json from disk
with open("600x400.json", "r") as read_file:
    upload_data = json.load(read_file)

# Decode the image in the upload json
decoded = base64.b64decode(upload_data['image'])
stream = io.BytesIO(decoded)
image_result = misc.imread(stream)
misc.imshow(image_result)