Camera Preview on SurfaceView

With little bit of modification on last exercise "Play 3gp video file using MediaPlayer", it's easy to implement a app to preview Android camera on SurfaceView.



Modify AndroidManifest.xml to grant permission to access Camera

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
     package="com.exercise.AndroidCamera"
     android:versionCode="1"
     android:versionName="1.0">
   <application android:icon="@drawable/icon" android:label="@string/app_name">
       <activity android:name=".AndroidCamera"
                 android:label="@string/app_name">
           <intent-filter>
               <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
               <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
           </intent-filter>
       </activity>

   </application>
   <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="4" />

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA"></uses-permission>
</manifest>

Modify main.xml, basically same as the one in the last exercise.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   android:orientation="vertical"
   android:layout_width="fill_parent"
   android:layout_height="fill_parent"
   >
<TextView 
   android:layout_width="fill_parent"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:text="@string/hello"
   />
<Button
 android:id="@+id/startcamerapreview" 
   android:layout_width="fill_parent"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:text="- Start Camera Preview -"
   />
<Button
 android:id="@+id/stopcamerapreview" 
   android:layout_width="fill_parent"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:text="- Stop Camera Preview -"
   />
<SurfaceView
 android:id="@+id/surfaceview" 
   android:layout_width="fill_parent"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   />
</LinearLayout>

Modify the source code, AndroidCamera.

package com.exercise.AndroidCamera;

import java.io.IOException;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.graphics.PixelFormat;
import android.hardware.Camera;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.SurfaceHolder;
import android.view.SurfaceView;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;

public class AndroidCamera extends Activity implements SurfaceHolder.Callback{

 Camera camera;
 SurfaceView surfaceView;
 SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder;
 boolean previewing = false;;
 
 String stringPath = "/sdcard/samplevideo.3gp";
 
   /** Called when the activity is first created. */
   @Override
   public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
       super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
       setContentView(R.layout.main);
      
       Button buttonStartCameraPreview = (Button)findViewById(R.id.startcamerapreview);
       Button buttonStopCameraPreview = (Button)findViewById(R.id.stopcamerapreview);
      
       getWindow().setFormat(PixelFormat.UNKNOWN);
       surfaceView = (SurfaceView)findViewById(R.id.surfaceview);
       surfaceHolder = surfaceView.getHolder();
       surfaceHolder.addCallback(this);
       surfaceHolder.setType(SurfaceHolder.SURFACE_TYPE_PUSH_BUFFERS);
      
       buttonStartCameraPreview.setOnClickListener(new Button.OnClickListener(){

   @Override
   public void onClick(View v) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    if(!previewing){
     camera = Camera.open();
     if (camera != null){
      try {
       camera.setPreviewDisplay(surfaceHolder);
       camera.startPreview();
       previewing = true;
      } catch (IOException e) {
       // TODO Auto-generated catch block
       e.printStackTrace();
      }
     }
    }
   }});
      
       buttonStopCameraPreview.setOnClickListener(new Button.OnClickListener(){

   @Override
   public void onClick(View v) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    if(camera != null && previewing){
     camera.stopPreview();
     camera.release();
     camera = null;
     
     previewing = false;
    }
   }});
      
   }
  
  

 @Override
 public void surfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder holder, int format, int width,
   int height) {
  // TODO Auto-generated method stub
  
 }

 @Override
 public void surfaceCreated(SurfaceHolder holder) {
  // TODO Auto-generated method stub
  
 }

 @Override
 public void surfaceDestroyed(SurfaceHolder holder) {
  // TODO Auto-generated method stub
  
 }
}

Download the files.

Related Article:
- Camera Preview, version II

Thank you for reading this article Camera Preview on SurfaceView With URL http://x-tutorials.blogspot.com/2010/12/camera-preview-on-surfaceview.html. Also a time to read the other articles.