CameraView

Camera view for Android. Supports orientation changes, fits preview image into available view space and works with Gingerbread (minSDK 9) or better (since it still uses the deprecated Camera API). All in just ~500 lines of code.

Why the deprecated Camera API?

This library is deliberately still on API level 9 (Android 2.3).

If you're not interested in supporting old versions of Android and/or don't want to use the deprecated Camera API on newer devices, have a look at the CameraX support library (available from API level 21).

There, we finally find PreviewView as part of the SDK. You can read here how to implement it.

How to include

Gradle

Add the JitPack repository in your root build.gradle at the end of repositories:

allprojects {
	repositories {
		…
		maven { url 'https://jitpack.io' }
	}
}

Then add the dependency in your app/build.gradle:

dependencies {
	implementation 'com.github.markusfisch:CameraView:1.10.0'
}

Manually

Alternatively you may just download the latest aar from Releases and put it into app/libs in your app.

Then make sure your app/build.gradle contains the following line in the dependencies block:

dependencies {
	implementation fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: '*')
	…
}

How to use

Add it to a layout:

<de.markusfisch.android.cameraview.widget.CameraView
	xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
	android:id="@+id/camera_view"
	android:layout_width="match_parent"
	android:layout_height="match_parent"/>

Or create it in Java:

import de.markusfisch.android.cameraview.widget.CameraView;

CameraView cameraView = new CameraView(context);

If your app supports orientation changes, please also enable the built-in orientation listener:

cameraView.setUseOrientationListener(true);

This will take care of landscape to reverse landscape rotations (and vice versa). Without this, Android will re-use the Activity without calling a life cycle method what will result in an upside down camera preview.

Run CameraView.openAsync()/.close() in onResume()/onPause() of your activity or fragment:

@Override
public void onResume() {
	super.onResume();
	cameraView.openAsync(CameraView.findCameraId(
			Camera.CameraInfo.CAMERA_FACING_BACK));
}

@Override
public void onPause() {
	super.onPause();
	cameraView.close();
}

To set custom camera parameters or a preview listener to get the camera frame, set an OnCameraListener:

cameraView.setOnCameraListener(new OnCameraListener {
	@Override
	public void onConfigureParameters(Camera.Parameters parameters) {
		// set additional camera parameters here
	}

	@Override
	public void onCameraError() {
		// handle camera errors
	}

	@Override
	public void onCameraReady(Camera camera) {
		// set a preview listener
	}

	@Override
	public void onPreviewStarted(Camera camera) {
		// start processing camera data
	}

	@Override
	public void onCameraStopping(Camera camera) {
		// clean up
	}
});

Preview resolution

By default CameraView picks the camera preview resolution that is closest to the size of the view on screen. If you want a lower or higher resolution, you may use CameraView.findBestPreviewSize() (or a customized copy of it) in OnCameraListener.onConfigureParameters() to pick another size.

For example, if you want to pick the highest possible resolution, you can do this:

cameraView.setOnCameraListener(new OnCameraListener {
	@Override
	public void onConfigureParameters(Camera.Parameters parameters) {
		Camera.Size size = findBestPreviewSize(
				parameters.getSupportedPreviewSizes(),
				cameraView.getFrameWidth() * 1000,
				cameraView.getFrameHeight() * 1000);
		parameters.setPreviewSize(size.width, size.height);
		…
	}
	…

CameraView.findBestPreviewSize() returns the preview resolution that has the smallest absolute distance to the given dimensions and is as close to the aspect ratio of those dimensions as possible.

Preview layout

On some devices, the camera frame has a different aspect ratio than the screen. The camera preview can either be laid so that it completely covers the available View area (which is SCALE_TYPE_CENTER_CROP, the default), or so that it lies completely within it (SCALE_TYPE_CENTER_INSIDE).

Use CameraView.setScaleType() with the appropriate constant:

cameraView.setScaleType(CameraView.SCALE_TYPE_CENTER_INSIDE);

Auto Focus

To enable Auto Focus, you should run CameraView.setAutoFocus() in OnCameraListener.onConfigureParameters():

cameraView.setOnCameraListener(new OnCameraListener {
	@Override
	public void onConfigureParameters(Camera.Parameters parameters) {
		CameraView.setAutoFocus(parameters);
		…
	}
	…

CameraView.setAutoFocus() picks the best available Auto Focus mode for making pictures. If you want something else, just have a look at this method and re-implement it in the client to fit your needs.

Note that Auto Focus is not available on all devices. If your app depends on Auto Focus, you should put a <uses-feature/> tag in your AndroidManifest.xml to make Google Play restrict your app to devices that sport this feature:

<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera.autofocus"/>

Tap to focus

To make the CameraView focus where a user taps, simply call setTapToFocus() on your cameraView instance:

cameraView.setTapToFocus();

This adds a View.OnTouchListener to the CameraView to process the tap.

If you want to use a custom View.OnTouchListener, you can call focusTo() manually in your touch listener instead of using setTapToFocus():

if (event.getActionMasked() == MotionEvent.ACTION_UP) {
	boolean success = focusTo(cameraView, event.getX(), event.getY());
	…
}

If focusTo() returns false, you should stop calling it because that means there was a RuntimeException that will be thrown (and catched) in the future too.

Scene modes

You may use a predefined scene mode to use optimized camera parameters for a specific purpose. Consequently, setting a scene mode may override previously set camera parameters, of course.

For example, to use SCENE_MODE_BARCODE (if it's available) do:

cameraView.setOnCameraListener(new OnCameraListener {
	@Override
	public void onConfigureParameters(Camera.Parameters parameters) {
		List<String> modes = parameters.getSupportedSceneModes();
		if (modes != null) {
			for (String mode : modes) {
				if (Camera.Parameters.SCENE_MODE_BARCODE.equals(mode)) {
					parameters.setSceneMode(mode);
					break;
				}
			}
		}
		…
	}
	…

Please note, not all devices support scene modes.

Demo

You can run the enclosed demo app to see if this widget is what you want. Either import it into Android Studio or, if you're not on that thing from Redmond, just type make to build, install and run.

Tap on the screen to switch between the front and back camera.

License

This widget is so basic, it should be Public Domain. And it is.