Uploading PiCamera Images to Azure

Overview

Recently, Windows 10 IoT Core Build 14393 is coming, but still without PiCamera support. So I can only choose Linux for my project. When I was using Windows, I use C# + Azure SDK to upload photos to Microsoft Azure. So how to do it on Linux?

Step 1

After some research, here's how to do it. My system is Raspbian Linux. First, we need to install Azure SDK in SSH Terminal:

 sudo pip install --pre azure  

Remember to execute the command as "sudo" or you will not have permission to install it.

Step 2

After installation, Python will support Azure. You will need an Azure storage account, such as mine, called "edirpi3", with a container named "webcamupload" in it.

Step 3

Then, create a new Py file:

 sudo nano testazureblob.py 

Acccessing Azure Container from Python:

from azure.storage.blob import BlockBlobService 
block_blob_service = BlockBlobService(account_name='edirpi3', account_key='YOURKEY') 

The "account_name" and "account_key" is in your Azure portal:

Step 4

To upload file:

from azure.storage.blob import ContentSettings 
block_blob_service.create_blob_from_path( 
   'webcamupload', 
   'firstblood.jpg', 
   'image1.jpg', 
   content_settings=ContentSettings(content_type='image/jpeg')) 

To take picture:

import picamera 
camera = picamera.PiCamera() 
camera.capture('image1.jpg') 

Integrate those two functions, we get the code for upload picture to Azure Blob:

from azure.storage.blob import BlockBlobService 
from azure.storage.blob import ContentSettings 
import picamera 
camera = picamera.PiCamera() 
camera.capture('image1.jpg') 
block_blob_service = BlockBlobService(account_name='edirpi3', account_key='YOURKEY') 
block_blob_service.create_blob_from_path( 
   'webcamupload', 
   'firstblood.jpg', 
   'image1.jpg', 
   content_settings=ContentSettings(content_type='image/jpeg')) 

Step 5

Execute Python file with "sudo python":

If everything is good, you will be able to see the picture in Azure portal: