I am creating an Android app and need a feature that takes photos without user interaction.
I simply want a class, for example, 'CameraService.java' that has a constructor that takes camera settings (eg. quality, res, etc) and a public function called 'takePhoto' which returns the image via type bitmap. I have been searching for a while to find out how I can do this using the Camera API 2 but have failed every time.
Most of the exemplars for doing this requires the camera to be made inside the MainActivity or in a class that extends Activity (I want to try to avoid this).
CameraService.java
I have utilized the following code found in a StackOverflow post (referenced below) which only saves the image to a hardcoded location (and uses Camera API 1) but I am experiencing errors.
package me.sam.camtest;
import android.hardware.Camera;
import android.util.Log;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
public class CameraService {
Camera mCamera;
private int quality;
public CameraService(int quality){
this.quality = quality;
}
private int findBackFacingCamera() {
int cameraId = -1;
int numberOfCameras = Camera.getNumberOfCameras();
for (int i = 0; i < numberOfCameras; i++) {
Camera.CameraInfo info = new Camera.CameraInfo();
Camera.getCameraInfo(i, info);
if (info.facing == Camera.CameraInfo.CAMERA_FACING_BACK) {
cameraId = i;
break;
}
}
return cameraId;
}
private boolean safeCameraOpen(int id) {
boolean qOpened = false;
try {
releaseCamera();
mCamera = Camera.open(id);
qOpened = (mCamera != null);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return qOpened;
}
private void releaseCamera() {
if (mCamera != null) {
mCamera.release();
mCamera = null;
}
}
Camera.PictureCallback mCall = new Camera.PictureCallback() {
public void onPictureTaken(byte[] data, Camera camera) {
FileOutputStream outStream = null;
try {
outStream = new FileOutputStream("/sdcard/Image.jpg");
outStream.write(data);
outStream.close();
} catch (FileNotFoundException e){
Log.d("CAMERA", e.getMessage());
} catch (IOException e){
Log.d("CAMERA", e.getMessage());
}
}
};
public void takePhoto(){
// Should return bitmap in future
int back_cam = findBackFacingCamera();
if(back_cam != -1){
safeCameraOpen(1);
mCamera.startPreview();
mCamera.takePicture(null, null, mCall);
}
}
}
Runtime Error:
E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main
Process: me.sam.camtest, PID: 985
java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{me.sam.camtest/me.sam.camtest.MainActivity}: java.lang.RuntimeException: takePicture failed
at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2778)
at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2856)
at android.app.ActivityThread.-wrap11(Unknown Source:0)
at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1589)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:106)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:164)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:6494)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:440)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:807)
Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: takePicture failed
at android.hardware.Camera.native_takePicture(Native Method)
at android.hardware.Camera.takePicture(Camera.java:1588)
at android.hardware.Camera.takePicture(Camera.java:1530)
at me.sam.camtest.CameraService.takePhoto(CameraService.java:74)
at me.sam.camtest.Reply.<init>(Reply.java:47)
at me.sam.camtest.MainActivity.onCreate(MainActivity.java:80)
at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:6999)
at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:6990)
at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1214)
at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2731)
at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2856)
at android.app.ActivityThread.-wrap11(Unknown Source:0)
at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1589)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:106)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:164)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:6494)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:440)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:807)
I researched this error and it seemed that people could only fix it by adding a Surface View which required the CameraService to be an activity or passed a context (not what I want).
In conclusion, How could I achieve the following:
- Have a simple camera class that has one public method, "takePhoto" which returns a bitmap
- Avoid extending Activity or passing contexts in the simple camera class
- Take the photo without user interaction (eg: intents)
PS: I am very new to the StackOverFlow community, I have tried to follow the guidelines with my best ability, please don't hate too much :)
My research:
