Most Android devices have a camera. Some devices have a front and a back camera.
Using the camera on the Android device can be done via integration of the existing Camera application. In this case you would start the existing Camera application via an Intent and to get the data after the user returns to our application.
You can also directly integrate the camera into your application via the Camera API.
public class ImagePickActivity extends Activity {
private static final int REQUEST_CODE = 1;
private Bitmap bitmap;
private ImageView imageView;
/* Called when the activity is first created. /
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
imageView = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.result);
}
public void pickImage(View View) {
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setType("image/*");
intent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
intent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_OPENABLE);
startActivityForResult(intent, REQUEST_CODE);
}
@Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
if (requestCode == REQUEST_CODE && resultCode == Activity.RESULT_OK)
try {
// We need to recyle unused bitmaps
if (bitmap != null) {
bitmap.recycle();
}
InputStream stream = getContentResolver().openInputStream(
data.getData());
bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(stream);
stream.close();
imageView.setImageBitmap(bitmap);
} catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
}
}</pre>
3. Tutorial: Using the camera API
In this example we will an application which allow to make a photo via the front camera and to save it on the SD card. If you using the Android emulator make sure you added space for the SD card during the creation of the your Android virtual device.
Create a new Android project de.vogella.camera.api with an Activity called MakePhotoActivity .
Add the android.permission.CAMERA permission to access your camera and the android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE to be able to write to the SD card to your AndroidManifest.xml file.
public class MakePhotoActivity extends Activity {
private final static String DEBUG_TAG = "MakePhotoActivity";
private Camera camera;
private int cameraId = 0;
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
// do we have a camera?
if (!getPackageManager()
.hasSystemFeature(PackageManager.FEATURE_CAMERA)) {
Toast.makeText(this, "No camera on this device", Toast.LENGTH_LONG)
.show();
} else {
cameraId = findFrontFacingCamera();
camera = Camera.open(cameraId);
if (cameraId < 0) {
Toast.makeText(this, "No front facing camera found.",
Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
}
}
public void onClick(View view) {
camera.takePicture(null, null,
new PhotoHandler(getApplicationContext()));
}
private int findFrontFacingCamera() {
int cameraId = -1;
// Search for the front facing camera
int numberOfCameras = Camera.getNumberOfCameras();
for (int i = 0; i < numberOfCameras; i++) {
CameraInfo info = new CameraInfo();
Camera.getCameraInfo(i, info);
if (info.facing == CameraInfo.CAMERA_FACING_FRONT) {
Log.d(DEBUG_TAG, "Camera found");
cameraId = i;
break;
}
}
return cameraId;
}
@Override
protected void onPause() {
if (camera != null) {
camera.release();
camera = null;
}
super.onPause();
}