Cameras

Cameras expose a small capture interface for connecting to a device and retrieving frames.

camera.connect()
frame = camera.read_latest()
camera.disconnect()

Read Modes

Method	Behavior	Use
read()	next frame, blocking	recording or complete frame streams
read_latest()	newest frame, non-blocking	real-time control
async_read()	async wrapper around read()	async applications

Runtime Use

Control loops usually care more about freshness than completeness.

observation["image.wrist"] = wrist_camera.read_latest()

Camera instances are not thread-safe. Use one thread per camera instance or add external synchronization.

SharedCamera

For multi-process or multi-thread access, use SharedCamera. It wraps any camera and handles IPC transport automatically.

from physicalai.capture import SharedCamera, UVCCamera

shared = SharedCamera(UVCCamera(device="/dev/video0"))
shared.connect()

# Safe to read from multiple threads/processes
frame = shared.read_latest()

SharedCamera is the recommended approach for production deployments where multiple consumers need camera frames. It avoids the need for manual synchronization and handles frame distribution efficiently.