Using matplotlib + multiprocessing for asynchronous, interactive monitoring plots.

gistfile1.py

"""Demo of how to pop up plots asynchronously using separate processes."""
from multiprocessing import Process
import time
import sys
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

def demo():
    i = 0
    processes = []
    while True:
        i += 1
        s = time.time()
        while time.time() - s < 5:
            print 'HA',
            sys.stdout.flush()
        def do_something():
            figno = i
            f = plt.figure()
            # Normally this will always be "Figure 1" since it's the first
            # figure created by this process. So do something about it.
            f.canvas.set_window_title('My stupid plot number %d' % i)
            arr = np.random.uniform(size=(50, 50))
            plt.imshow(arr)
            plt.show()
        p = Process(None, do_something)
        processes.append(p) # May want to do other things with objects
        p.start()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    demo()

I encountered an error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File ".\demo.py", line 30, in <module>
    demo()
  File ".\demo.py", line 27, in demo
    p.start()
  File "E:\Anaconda3\lib\multiprocessing\process.py", line 121, in start
    self._popen = self._Popen(self)
  File "E:\Anaconda3\lib\multiprocessing\context.py", line 224, in _Popen
    return _default_context.get_context().Process._Popen(process_obj)
  File "E:\Anaconda3\lib\multiprocessing\context.py", line 326, in _Popen
    return Popen(process_obj)
  File "E:\Anaconda3\lib\multiprocessing\popen_spawn_win32.py", line 93, in __init__
    reduction.dump(process_obj, to_child)
  File "E:\Anaconda3\lib\multiprocessing\reduction.py", line 60, in dump
    ForkingPickler(file, protocol).dump(obj)
AttributeError: Can't pickle local object 'demo.<locals>.do_something'