How to access Mac default camera using swift xcode

Question

Today i am coding for Mac first time. What I am trying to do is access the default camera and show a preview. 2nd step i will record or take a snap if i need. For the 1st step i have written the following code

import Cocoa
import AVFoundation
class ViewController: NSViewController {
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        var session:AVCaptureSession = AVCaptureSession()
        session.sessionPreset = AVCaptureSessionPresetLow
        var device:AVCaptureDevice = AVCaptureDevice.defaultDeviceWithMediaType(AVMediaTypeVideo)
        //Preview
        var previewLayer:AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer = AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer(session: session)
        var myView:NSView = self.view
        previewLayer.frame = myView.bounds
        previewLayer.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravityResizeAspectFill
        self.view.layer?.addSublayer(previewLayer)
        session.startRunning()
    }
    override var representedObject: AnyObject? {
        didSet {
        // Update the view, if already loaded.
        }
    }
}

I don't see this code is turning on my laptop default camera or displaying anything on the view. What am i doing wrong here? Any direction or any example i can look for even if its in Obj-C would be really helpful. TIA.

Answer 1

In your code the

self.view.layer?.addSublayer(previewLayer)

will not be executed since self.view.layer is nil so that won't be executed.

Alas, this does not seem to be only issue since even when adding a layer the camera does not start working. You will likely have to dig into this:

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/samplecode/AVRecorder/Introduction/Intro.html

Answer 2

Working code in swift 5.

import Cocoa
import AVFoundation

class SomwViewController: NSViewController {
    @IBOutlet private var cameraView: NSView?
    let session: AVCaptureSession = AVCaptureSession()

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        cameraView?.wantsLayer = true
        cameraView?.layer?.backgroundColor = NSColor.black.cgColor
        session.sessionPreset = AVCaptureSession.Preset.low
        let input: AVCaptureInput = try! AVCaptureDeviceInput(device: AVCaptureDevice.default(for: .video)!)
        session.addInput(input)
        let previewLayer: AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer = AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer(session: session)
        previewLayer.frame = cameraView!.bounds
        previewLayer.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravity.resizeAspectFill

        cameraView?.layer?.addSublayer(previewLayer)
    }

    override func viewDidAppear() {
        session.startRunning()
    }

    override func viewDidDisappear() {
        session.stopRunning()
    }
}

You should definitely not use force unwraps, it's just an example.