Python 3 OpenCV Script to Remove Background of Live Webcam Video Using cvzone & Mediapipe Library

Welcome folks today in this blog post we will be seeing on how basically we can remove the background of the live webcam video in python using opencv ,cvzone and medipipe library. All the full source code of the application is shown below.

Get Started

In order to get started you need to install the below libraries as shown below

pip install opencv-python

pip install cvzone

pip install mediapipe

After installing these libraries make an app.py file and copy paste the following code

app.py

import cv2
import cvzone
from cvzone.SelfiSegmentationModule import SelfiSegmentation

video = cv2.VideoCapture(0)

video.set(3,640)
video.set(4,480)
loopsvar = True

segmen = SelfiSegmentation()

import cv2

import cvzone

from cvzone.SelfiSegmentationModule import SelfiSegmentation

video = cv2.VideoCapture(0)

video.set(3,640)

video.set(4,480)

loopsvar = True

segmen = SelfiSegmentation()

First of all in the above code we are importing all the libraries that we installed and then we are taking the user webcam using opencv and storing it inside the video variable. And then we are setting the width and the height of the webcam to be 640x480. And then we are storing the segmentation constructor in segmen variable.

while loopsvar:
    _,frame = video.read()
    cv2.imshow("video",frame)
    key=cv2.waitKey(1)
    if key== ord('c'):
        loopsvar = False
    elif key == ord('q'):
        imagechange('firstimage')
    elif key == ord('w'):
        imagechange('secondimage')
    elif key == ord('e'):
        imagechange('thirdimage')

while loopsvar:

_,frame = video.read()

cv2.imshow("video",frame)

key=cv2.waitKey(1)

if key== ord('c'):

loopsvar = False

elif key == ord('q'):

imagechange('firstimage')

elif key == ord('w'):

imagechange('secondimage')

elif key == ord('e'):

imagechange('thirdimage')

Now guys we are running a simple while loop to simply display the live webcam video of the user. We are reading the frames from the video webcam using the opencv read() method and then we are checking which key the user has pressed. If the user has pressed the c key we are quitting the application by making the loopvar to false. And then if user has pressed q,w and e keys we are toggling the background of the webcam to custom images that we have stored as shown below

Make sure you resize all the images that is stored to 640x480 which is the size of the webcam video. And now basically we can write the function which will actually change the background of the webcam to a custom image as shown below

def imagechange(image):
    global loopsvar
    if image == "firstimage":
        bgimage = cv2.imread("1.png")
    elif image == "secondimage":
        bgimage = cv2.imread("2.png")
    elif image == "thirdimage":
        bgimage = cv2.imread('3.png')
    
    while loopsvar:
        check,frame = video.read()
        videoremovebg = segmen.removeBG(frame,bgimage,threshold=0.8)
        cv2.imshow('video',videoremovebg)
        key=cv2.waitKey(1)
        if key== ord('c'):
            loopsvar=False
        elif key == ord('q'):
            imagechange('firstimage')
        elif key == ord('w'):
            imagechange('secondimage')
        elif key == ord('e'):
            imagechange('thirdimage')

def imagechange(image):

global loopsvar

if image == "firstimage":

bgimage = cv2.imread("1.png")

elif image == "secondimage":

bgimage = cv2.imread("2.png")

elif image == "thirdimage":

bgimage = cv2.imread('3.png')

while loopsvar:

check,frame = video.read()

videoremovebg = segmen.removeBG(frame,bgimage,threshold=0.8)

cv2.imshow('video',videoremovebg)

key=cv2.waitKey(1)

if key== ord('c'):

loopsvar=False

elif key == ord('q'):

imagechange('firstimage')

elif key == ord('w'):

imagechange('secondimage')

elif key == ord('e'):

imagechange('thirdimage')

Here we are using the removeBg() method of the cvzone module to replace the custom image as the background. And then we are using the same logic to check which key is pressed by the user and accordingly we are showing the respective three images. Now if you run the python script you will see the below output

python app.py

Full Source Code

app.py

import cv2
import cvzone
from cvzone.SelfiSegmentationModule import SelfiSegmentation

video = cv2.VideoCapture(0)

video.set(3,640)
video.set(4,480)
loopsvar = True

segmen = SelfiSegmentation()

def imagechange(image):
    global loopsvar
    if image == "firstimage":
        bgimage = cv2.imread("1.png")
    elif image == "secondimage":
        bgimage = cv2.imread("2.png")
    elif image == "thirdimage":
        bgimage = cv2.imread('3.png')
    
    while loopsvar:
        check,frame = video.read()
        videoremovebg = segmen.removeBG(frame,bgimage,threshold=0.8)
        cv2.imshow('video',videoremovebg)
        key=cv2.waitKey(1)
        if key== ord('c'):
            loopsvar=False
        elif key == ord('q'):
            imagechange('firstimage')
        elif key == ord('w'):
            imagechange('secondimage')
        elif key == ord('e'):
            imagechange('thirdimage')


while loopsvar:
    _,frame = video.read()
    cv2.imshow("video",frame)
    key=cv2.waitKey(1)
    if key== ord('c'):
        loopsvar = False
    elif key == ord('q'):
        imagechange('firstimage')
    elif key == ord('w'):
        imagechange('secondimage')
    elif key == ord('e'):
        imagechange('thirdimage')

import cv2

import cvzone

from cvzone.SelfiSegmentationModule import SelfiSegmentation

video = cv2.VideoCapture(0)

video.set(3,640)

video.set(4,480)

loopsvar = True

segmen = SelfiSegmentation()

def imagechange(image):

global loopsvar

if image == "firstimage":

bgimage = cv2.imread("1.png")

elif image == "secondimage":

bgimage = cv2.imread("2.png")

elif image == "thirdimage":

bgimage = cv2.imread('3.png')

while loopsvar:

check,frame = video.read()

videoremovebg = segmen.removeBG(frame,bgimage,threshold=0.8)

cv2.imshow('video',videoremovebg)

key=cv2.waitKey(1)

if key== ord('c'):

loopsvar=False

elif key == ord('q'):

imagechange('firstimage')

elif key == ord('w'):

imagechange('secondimage')

elif key == ord('e'):

imagechange('thirdimage')

while loopsvar:

_,frame = video.read()

cv2.imshow("video",frame)

key=cv2.waitKey(1)

if key== ord('c'):

loopsvar = False

elif key == ord('q'):

imagechange('firstimage')

elif key == ord('w'):

imagechange('secondimage')

elif key == ord('e'):

imagechange('thirdimage')