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.

Create a new Android project de.vogella.android.imagepick with an activity called ImagePickActivity.

Change the ImagePickActivity class to the following.

package de.vogella.android.imagepick;

import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.graphics.Bitmap;
import android.graphics.BitmapFactory;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.ImageView;

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);
  }
} 

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.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="de.vogella.cameara.api"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0" >

    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="15" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA"/>
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>

    <application
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name" >
        <activity
            android:name="de.vogella.camera.api.MakePhotoActivity"
            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>

</manifest> 

Change the main.xml file in the res/layout folder to the following

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent" >

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/captureFront"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerInParent="true"
        android:onClick="onClick"
        android:text="Make Photo" />

</RelativeLayout> 

Create the following PhotoHandler class which will be responsible for saving the photo the SD card.

package de.vogella.camera.api;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;

import android.content.Context;
import android.hardware.Camera;
import android.hardware.Camera.PictureCallback;
import android.os.Environment;
import android.util.Log;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class PhotoHandler implements PictureCallback {

  private final Context context;

  public PhotoHandler(Context context) {
    this.context = context;
  }

  @Override
  public void onPictureTaken(byte[] data, Camera camera) {

    File pictureFileDir = getDir();

    if (!pictureFileDir.exists() && !pictureFileDir.mkdirs()) {

      Log.d(MakePhotoActivity.DEBUG_TAG, "Can't create directory to save image.");
      Toast.makeText(context, "Can't create directory to save image.",
          Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
      return;

    }

    SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyymmddhhmmss");
    String date = dateFormat.format(new Date());
    String photoFile = "Picture_" + date + ".jpg";

    String filename = pictureFileDir.getPath() + File.separator + photoFile;

    File pictureFile = new File(filename);

    try {
      FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(pictureFile);
      fos.write(data);
      fos.close();
      Toast.makeText(context, "New Image saved:" + photoFile,
          Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    } catch (Exception error) {
      Log.d(MakePhotoActivity.DEBUG_TAG, "File" + filename + "not saved: "
          + error.getMessage());
      Toast.makeText(context, "Image could not be saved.",
          Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    }
  }

  private File getDir() {
    File sdDir = Environment
      .getExternalStoragePublicDirectory(Environment.DIRECTORY_PICTURES);
    return new File(sdDir, "CameraAPIDemo");
  }
} 

Change the MakePhotoActivity class to the following.

package de.vogella.camera.api;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.pm.PackageManager;
import android.hardware.Camera;
import android.hardware.Camera.CameraInfo;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Toast;
import de.vogella.cameara.api.R;

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();
      if (cameraId < 0) {
        Toast.makeText(this, "No front facing camera found.",
            Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
      } else {
        camera = Camera.open(cameraId);
      }
    }
  }

  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();
  }

} 

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