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Yes, the Raspberry Pi is much slower than a desktop computer. So you'll need to optimize the code as much as possible.

Note that the Zero is by far the weakest Raspberry Pi; I would rather choose another model with better performances (like the Pi 4).

I would develop the software on the desktop computer, it's much faster. Then, if you take out the UI part (imshow, etc.) you can run it without the X server. You can recompile and run this on the Pi in headless mode (without attached screen). Anyway, you won't use a screen in the final product.

For testing, I would use a verbose output to see (over SSH) if everything works without a graphical display. Something like:

Opening camera...OK
Beginning capture...
Frame 1 captured. Frame1 processed in 100ms.
    --> Red LED detected. Red LED OFF.
    --> Blue LED detected. Blue LED ON.
Frame2....