diff --git a/include/libcamera/internal/utils.h b/include/libcamera/internal/utils.h
index a1b644b0345bdb48..ebb2c4038e196f05 100644
--- a/include/libcamera/internal/utils.h
+++ b/include/libcamera/internal/utils.h
@@ -190,6 +190,8 @@ private:
 
 details::StringSplitter split(const std::string &str, const std::string &delim);
 
+std::string toAscii(const std::string &str);
+
 std::string libcameraBuildPath();
 std::string libcameraSourcePath();
 
diff --git a/src/libcamera/utils.cpp b/src/libcamera/utils.cpp
index a5232902191eec85..da85c9c24340ae3b 100644
--- a/src/libcamera/utils.cpp
+++ b/src/libcamera/utils.cpp
@@ -334,6 +334,23 @@ details::StringSplitter split(const std::string &str, const std::string &delim)
 	return details::StringSplitter(str, delim);
 }
 
+/**
+ * \brief Remove any non-ASCII characters from a string
+ * \param[in] str The string to strip
+ *
+ * Remove all non-ASCII characters from a string.
+ *
+ * \return A string equal to \a str stripped out of all non-ASCII characters
+ */
+std::string toAscii(const std::string &str)
+{
+	std::string ret;
+	for (const char &c : str)
+		if (!(c & 0x80))
+			ret += c;
+	return ret;
+}
+
 /**
  * \brief Check if libcamera is installed or not
  *