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Overview

The VirtualCameraDevice class represents a virtual camera that can be used to stream video frames into a Daily call. You can create a virtual camera device and write video frames to it programmatically.

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Creation

Create a virtual camera device using the Daily.create_camera_device() static method: 
from daily import Daily

camera = Daily.create_camera_device(
    device_name="my-virtual-camera",
    width=1280,
    height=720,
    color_format="RGBA"
)

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Parameters

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device_name
str
required
The name of the virtual camera device
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width
int
required
The width of the video frames in pixels
​
height
int
required
The height of the video frames in pixels
​
color_format
str
default:"RGBA"
The color format of the video frames. Default is “RGBA”

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Properties

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name
str
The name of the virtual camera device
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width
int
The width of the video frames in pixels
​
height
int
The height of the video frames in pixels
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color_format
str
The color format of the video frames

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Methods

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write_frame()

Writes a single video frame to the virtual camera device. 
camera.write_frame(frame)

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Parameters

​
frame
bytes
required
The video frame data as bytes. The size should match width * height * bytes_per_pixel based on the color format

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Returns

None

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Example Usage

from daily import Daily, CallClient
import numpy as np

# Initialize Daily
Daily.init()

# Create a virtual camera device
camera = Daily.create_camera_device(
    device_name="my-camera",
    width=640,
    height=480,
    color_format="RGBA"
)

# Create a client and join a call
client = CallClient()
client.join("https://your-domain.daily.co/room")

# Update inputs to use the virtual camera
client.update_inputs({
    "camera": {
        "isEnabled": True,
        "settings": {
            "deviceId": camera.name
        }
    }
})

# Generate and write frames
while True:
    # Create a frame (example: solid color)
    frame = np.zeros((camera.height, camera.width, 4), dtype=np.uint8)
    frame[:, :] = [255, 0, 0, 255]  # Red color
    
    # Write the frame to the virtual camera
    camera.write_frame(frame.tobytes())
    
    # Control frame rate (e.g., 30 fps)
    time.sleep(1/30)

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