iOS: Capture image from front facing camera

Question

I am making an application where I would like to capture an image from the front facing camera, without presenting a capture screen of any kind. I want to take a picture completely in code without any user interaction. How would I do this for the front facing camera?

Answer 1

How to capture an image using the AVFoundation front-facing camera:

Development Caveats:

• Check your app and image orientation settings carefully
• AVFoundation and its associated frameworks are nasty behemoths and very difficult to understand/implement. I've made my code as lean as possible, but please check out this excellent tutorial for a better explanation (website not available any more, link via archive.org): http://www.benjaminloulier.com/posts/ios4-and-direct-access-to-the-camera

ViewController.h

// Frameworks
#import <CoreVideo/CoreVideo.h>
#import <CoreMedia/CoreMedia.h>
#import <AVFoundation/AVFoundation.h>
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface CameraViewController : UIViewController <AVCaptureVideoDataOutputSampleBufferDelegate>

// Camera
@property (weak, nonatomic) IBOutlet UIImageView* cameraImageView;
@property (strong, nonatomic) AVCaptureDevice* device;
@property (strong, nonatomic) AVCaptureSession* captureSession;
@property (strong, nonatomic) AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer* previewLayer;
@property (strong, nonatomic) UIImage* cameraImage;

@end

ViewController.m

#import "CameraViewController.h"

@implementation CameraViewController

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    [self setupCamera];
    [self setupTimer];
}

- (void)setupCamera
{    
    NSArray* devices = [AVCaptureDevice devicesWithMediaType:AVMediaTypeVideo];
    for(AVCaptureDevice *device in devices)
    {
        if([device position] == AVCaptureDevicePositionFront)
            self.device = device;
    }

    AVCaptureDeviceInput* input = [AVCaptureDeviceInput deviceInputWithDevice:self.device error:nil];
    AVCaptureVideoDataOutput* output = [[AVCaptureVideoDataOutput alloc] init];
    output.alwaysDiscardsLateVideoFrames = YES;

    dispatch_queue_t queue;
    queue = dispatch_queue_create("cameraQueue", NULL);
    [output setSampleBufferDelegate:self queue:queue];

    NSString* key = (NSString *) kCVPixelBufferPixelFormatTypeKey;
    NSNumber* value = [NSNumber numberWithUnsignedInt:kCVPixelFormatType_32BGRA];
    NSDictionary* videoSettings = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject:value forKey:key];
    [output setVideoSettings:videoSettings];

    self.captureSession = [[AVCaptureSession alloc] init];
    [self.captureSession addInput:input];
    [self.captureSession addOutput:output];
    [self.captureSession setSessionPreset:AVCaptureSessionPresetPhoto];

    self.previewLayer = [AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer layerWithSession:self.captureSession];
    self.previewLayer.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravityResizeAspectFill;

    // CHECK FOR YOUR APP
    self.previewLayer.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, self.view.frame.size.height, self.view.frame.size.width);
    self.previewLayer.orientation = AVCaptureVideoOrientationLandscapeRight;
    // CHECK FOR YOUR APP

    [self.view.layer insertSublayer:self.previewLayer atIndex:0];   // Comment-out to hide preview layer

    [self.captureSession startRunning];
}

- (void)captureOutput:(AVCaptureOutput *)captureOutput didOutputSampleBuffer:(CMSampleBufferRef)sampleBuffer fromConnection:(AVCaptureConnection *)connection
{
    CVImageBufferRef imageBuffer = CMSampleBufferGetImageBuffer(sampleBuffer);
    CVPixelBufferLockBaseAddress(imageBuffer,0);
    uint8_t *baseAddress = (uint8_t *)CVPixelBufferGetBaseAddress(imageBuffer);
    size_t bytesPerRow = CVPixelBufferGetBytesPerRow(imageBuffer);
    size_t width = CVPixelBufferGetWidth(imageBuffer);
    size_t height = CVPixelBufferGetHeight(imageBuffer);

    CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
    CGContextRef newContext = CGBitmapContextCreate(baseAddress, width, height, 8, bytesPerRow, colorSpace, kCGBitmapByteOrder32Little | kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedFirst);
    CGImageRef newImage = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(newContext);

    CGContextRelease(newContext);
    CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);

    self.cameraImage = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:newImage scale:1.0f orientation:UIImageOrientationDownMirrored];

    CGImageRelease(newImage);

    CVPixelBufferUnlockBaseAddress(imageBuffer,0);
}

- (void)setupTimer
{
    NSTimer* cameraTimer = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:2.0f target:self selector:@selector(snapshot) userInfo:nil repeats:YES];
}

- (void)snapshot
{
    NSLog(@"SNAPSHOT");
    self.cameraImageView.image = self.cameraImage;  // Comment-out to hide snapshot
}

@end

Connect this up to a UIViewController with a UIImageView for the snapshot and it'll work! Snapshots are taken programmatically at 2.0 second intervals without any user input. Comment out the selected lines to remove the preview layer and snapshot feedback.

Any more questions/comments, please let me know!

Answer 2

Convert above code to Swift 4

import UIKit
import AVFoundation

class CameraViewController: UIViewController, AVCaptureVideoDataOutputSampleBufferDelegate {

@IBOutlet weak var cameraImageView: UIImageView!

var device: AVCaptureDevice?
var captureSession: AVCaptureSession?
var previewLayer: AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer?
var cameraImage: UIImage?

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    setupCamera()
    setupTimer()
}

func setupCamera() {
    let discoverySession = AVCaptureDevice.DiscoverySession(deviceTypes: [.builtInWideAngleCamera],
                                                            mediaType: AVMediaType.video,
                                                           position: .front)
    device = discoverySession.devices[0]

    let input: AVCaptureDeviceInput
    do {
        input = try AVCaptureDeviceInput(device: device!)
    } catch {
        return
    }

    let output = AVCaptureVideoDataOutput()
    output.alwaysDiscardsLateVideoFrames = true

    let queue = DispatchQueue(label: "cameraQueue")
    output.setSampleBufferDelegate(self, queue: queue)
    output.videoSettings = [kCVPixelBufferPixelFormatTypeKey as AnyHashable as! String: kCVPixelFormatType_32BGRA]

    captureSession = AVCaptureSession()
    captureSession?.addInput(input)
    captureSession?.addOutput(output)
    captureSession?.sessionPreset = AVCaptureSession.Preset.photo

    previewLayer = AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer(session: captureSession!)
    previewLayer?.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravity.resizeAspectFill
    previewLayer?.frame = CGRect(x: 0.0, y: 0.0, width: view.frame.width, height: view.frame.height)

    view.layer.insertSublayer(previewLayer!, at: 0)

        captureSession?.startRunning()
    }

    func captureOutput(_ output: AVCaptureOutput, didOutput sampleBuffer: CMSampleBuffer, from connection: AVCaptureConnection) {
        let imageBuffer = CMSampleBufferGetImageBuffer(sampleBuffer)
    CVPixelBufferLockBaseAddress(imageBuffer!, CVPixelBufferLockFlags(rawValue: 0))
        let baseAddress = UnsafeMutableRawPointer(CVPixelBufferGetBaseAddress(imageBuffer!))
        let bytesPerRow = CVPixelBufferGetBytesPerRow(imageBuffer!)
        let width = CVPixelBufferGetWidth(imageBuffer!)
        let height = CVPixelBufferGetHeight(imageBuffer!)

        let colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB()
        let newContext = CGContext(data: baseAddress, width: width, height: height, bitsPerComponent: 8, bytesPerRow: bytesPerRow, space: colorSpace, bitmapInfo:
        CGBitmapInfo.byteOrder32Little.rawValue | CGImageAlphaInfo.premultipliedFirst.rawValue)

        let newImage = newContext!.makeImage()
         cameraImage = UIImage(cgImage: newImage!)

        CVPixelBufferUnlockBaseAddress(imageBuffer!, CVPixelBufferLockFlags(rawValue: 0))
    }

    func setupTimer() {
        _ = Timer.scheduledTimer(timeInterval: 2.0, target: self, selector: #selector(snapshot), userInfo: nil, repeats: true)
    }

    @objc func snapshot() {
        print("SNAPSHOT")
        cameraImageView.image = cameraImage
    }
}