Capture successive screen shots of a given screen region

shots.py

#!/usr/bin/env python2

"""
    shots.py: capture successive screen shots of a given screen region
"""

__author__ = "joe di castro <[email protected]>"
__license__ = "MIT"
__date__ = "2015-03-01"
__version__ = "0.1"


try:
    import os
    import re
    import sys
    import time
    import pyscreenshot as ImageGrab
    from argparse import ArgumentParser
except ImportError:
    # Checks the installation of the necessary python modules
    print((os.linesep * 2).join(["An error found importing one module:",
          str(sys.exc_info()[1]), "You need to install it", "Stopping..."]))
    sys.exit(-2)


def arguments():
    """Defines the command line arguments for the script."""
    main_desc = """Capture successive screen shots of a given screen region"""

    parser = ArgumentParser(description=main_desc)
    parser.add_argument("-p", "--path", dest="path",
                        default=os.path.expanduser('~/animations'), nargs='?',
                        help="The path to store the captures. If none "
                        "is given, takes the ~/animations directory")

    parser.add_argument("-n", "--number", dest="number",
                        default=20, nargs='?',
                        help="The number of captures to take. Default=20")

    parser.add_argument("-i", "--interval", dest="interval",
                        default=0.05, nargs='?',
                        help="The time interval between "
                        "captures. Default=0.05s")

    parser.add_argument("-r", "--region", dest="region",
                        default="0, 17, 500, 500", nargs='?',
                        help="The screen region to "
                        "capture. Default=(0, 17, 500, 500)")

    parser.add_argument("-v", "--version", action="version",
                        version="%(prog)s {0}".format(__version__),
                        help="show program's version number and exit")
    return parser


def main():
    args = arguments().parse_args()

    # the screen region to capture
    region = tuple([int(i) for i in re.findall("(\d+)", args.region)])

    for i in range(0, int(args.number)):
        filename = str(time.time()) + '.png'
        im = ImageGrab.grab(region)
        im.save(os.path.join(args.path, filename))
        time.sleep(int(args.interval))

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()