Android - Take picture without preview

Question

I am trying to take a picture without preview, immediately when my application starts running and after that to save the picture in new folder - "pictures123", in the root folder. Could someone please tell me what's wrong in my code?

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
    File directory = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory() + "/pictures123/");

    if (!directory.exists()) {
        directory.mkdir();
    }

    Camera camera = Camera.open(0);
    Camera.Parameters parameters = camera.getParameters();
    parameters.setPictureFormat(ImageFormat.JPEG);
    camera.setParameters(parameters);
    SurfaceView mview = new SurfaceView(getBaseContext());
    camera.setPreviewDisplay(mview.getHolder());
    camera.setPreviewDisplay(null);
    camera.startPreview();
    camera.takePicture(null,null,photoCallback);
    camera.stopPreview();
}

Camera.PictureCallback photoCallback=new Camera.PictureCallback() {
    public void onPictureTaken(byte[] data, Camera camera) {

        try {
            String root = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().toString();
            File myDir = new File(root + "/pictures123");
            File file = new File (myDir, "pic1.jpeg");
            FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(file);
            out.write(data);
            out.flush();
            out.close();
        } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();

        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();

        } catch (Exception e)
        {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        finish();

    }
};

permissions:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera" />

Possible duplicate of [How to take pictures from the camera without preview when my app starts?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20684553/how-to-take-pictures-from-the-camera-without-preview-when-my-app-starts) — GSerg, Apr 08 '16 at 07:53

score 10 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

10

You can't take a picture without a preview, but you don't have to show the preview on screen. You can direct the output to a SurfaceTexture instead (API 11+).

See this answer for more details.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

Community

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answered Sep 10 '14 at 15:36

fadden

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score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:00

0

I think the main problem is that you are calling takePicture immediately after startPreview which actually takes time to complete its setup. So adding a delay between those two could temporarily fix this issue, look here for more details.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:00

Community

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answered Sep 10 '14 at 02:01

ashoke

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With `camera.setPreviewDisplay(null)`, no delay will help (_well, there exist some devices that allow such ricks_). Also note, that _delay_ cannot be a simple `Sleep()` call here and there. The flow of camera initialization involves some callbacks and requires timely response to these. E.g. one cannot use SurfaceHolder before the `SurfaceView` has called `SurfaceCreated()` on its listener. – Alex Cohn Sep 10 '14 at 18:52

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 10 '14 at 02:09

0

It's impossible to take a picture without preview. You should read the Android online reference: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/Camera.html#takePicture.

Note: This method is only valid when preview is active (after startPreview()). Preview will be stopped after the image is taken; callers must call startPreview() again if they want to re-start preview or take more pictures. This should not be called between start() and stop().

answered Sep 10 '14 at 02:09

yushulx

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Are you sure that it's impossible to take a picture without preview? i know an application that do this - "gotya!". this app takes a picture if someone tried to unlock the device with an incorrect password. – Eyal Sep 10 '14 at 14:34
1

I think it just hided the preview. For example, you can add a customized view over SurfaceView. – yushulx Sep 11 '14 at 02:22

Android - Take picture without preview

3 Answers3

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