Open/Run Camera from background service in android

Question

Want to build an app which keeps recording in background, is it possible ?

well i'm not sure about that, but what i know is that u can use the recording method on the onPause() method so when your is on the background will keep recording. and btw what have you tried ? — Kosh, Feb 20 '13 at 09:44
think it is possible and u hav done the same what if another app or default camera app requests for camera? it will show camera already in use ?? doesnt it seam spying is not a good habit? — Athul Harikumar, Feb 20 '13 at 09:45

score 14 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 21 '13 at 08:17

yes its very well possible.

Create an activity which will start your background service on some event or you can also use alarm manager to start and stop the service as per your requirement.

Check some rough code which will start & stop recording using camera, this you can call from your background service and will work smoothly.

    public boolean starMediaRecording(){
            Camera.Parameters params = mServiceCamera.getParameters();
            mServiceCamera.setParameters(params);
            Camera.Parameters p = mServiceCamera.getParameters();

            final List<Size> listSize = p.getSupportedPreviewSizes();
            Size mPreviewSize = listSize.get(2);
            p.setPreviewSize(mPreviewSize.width, mPreviewSize.height);
            p.setPreviewFormat(PixelFormat.YCbCr_420_SP);
            mServiceCamera.setParameters(p);

            try {
                mServiceCamera.setPreviewDisplay(mSurfaceHolder);
                mServiceCamera.startPreview();
            }
            catch (IOException e) {
                Log.e(TAG, e.getMessage());
                e.printStackTrace();
            }

            mServiceCamera.unlock();

            mMediaRecorder = new MediaRecorder();
            mMediaRecorder.setCamera(mServiceCamera);
            mMediaRecorder.setAudioSource(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC);
            mMediaRecorder.setVideoSource(MediaRecorder.VideoSource.CAMERA);
            mMediaRecorder.setOutputFormat(MediaRecorder.OutputFormat.MPEG_4);
            mMediaRecorder.setAudioEncoder(MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.DEFAULT);
            mMediaRecorder.setVideoEncoder(MediaRecorder.VideoEncoder.DEFAULT);
            mMediaRecorder.setOutputFile("/sdcard/filenamevideo.mp4");
            mMediaRecorder.setVideoFrameRate(30);
            mMediaRecorder.setVideoSize(mPreviewSize.width, mPreviewSize.height);
            mMediaRecorder.setPreviewDisplay(mSurfaceHolder.getSurface());

            mMediaRecorder.prepare();
            mMediaRecorder.start(); 

            mRecordingStatus = true;

            return true;

    }

    public void stopMediaRecorder() {
        mServiceCamera.reconnect();

        mMediaRecorder.stop();
        mMediaRecorder.reset();

        mServiceCamera.stopPreview();
        mMediaRecorder.release();

        mServiceCamera.release();
        mServiceCamera = null;
    }
}

This is sample code, you need to add your own logic around and also handle exceptions accordingly.

thanks for quick reply. I tried this and it worked after some minor changes. — DraD, Feb 21 '13 at 08:21
what is mSurfaceHolder in your example ? If I'm using a empty one i get error on some device, and i cant really get one if i'm only using a service — Yalla T., Feb 21 '13 at 08:42
This code works fine on Android 2.3.3 HTC Desire, but background recording fails on Galaxy S3 and Nexus 4. Any ideas? — Sergii, Mar 23 '13 at 22:18
Ditto on the mSurfaceHolder. That's my main problem, figuring out where to get that in a Service. — Rahat Ahmed, Mar 24 '13 at 23:30
what is "mServiceCamera" in this method? DraD can you please tell me what changes you have done exactly? — Pratik Dasa, Sep 16 '13 at 11:50
What's the point of getting the camera parameters only to set them and get them again? — Sam, Nov 15 '14 at 23:21
@Pawan M , what is the type of `mRecordingStatus` in the code? — Peter Zhu, Mar 17 '15 at 10:38
First two commands in function `starMediaRecording` is useless right? — Peter Zhu, Mar 17 '15 at 11:05
and you need `mServiceCamera.open(0)` at the very beginning. — Peter Zhu, Mar 17 '15 at 14:00

Open/Run Camera from background service in android

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