Open/Run Camera from background service in android

Question

Want to build an app which keeps recording in background, is it possible ?

Answer 1

yes its very well possible.

Create an activity which will start your background service on some event or you can also use alarm manager to start and stop the service as per your requirement.

Check some rough code which will start & stop recording using camera, this you can call from your background service and will work smoothly.

    public boolean starMediaRecording(){
            Camera.Parameters params = mServiceCamera.getParameters();
            mServiceCamera.setParameters(params);
            Camera.Parameters p = mServiceCamera.getParameters();

            final List<Size> listSize = p.getSupportedPreviewSizes();
            Size mPreviewSize = listSize.get(2);
            p.setPreviewSize(mPreviewSize.width, mPreviewSize.height);
            p.setPreviewFormat(PixelFormat.YCbCr_420_SP);
            mServiceCamera.setParameters(p);

            try {
                mServiceCamera.setPreviewDisplay(mSurfaceHolder);
                mServiceCamera.startPreview();
            }
            catch (IOException e) {
                Log.e(TAG, e.getMessage());
                e.printStackTrace();
            }

            mServiceCamera.unlock();

            mMediaRecorder = new MediaRecorder();
            mMediaRecorder.setCamera(mServiceCamera);
            mMediaRecorder.setAudioSource(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC);
            mMediaRecorder.setVideoSource(MediaRecorder.VideoSource.CAMERA);
            mMediaRecorder.setOutputFormat(MediaRecorder.OutputFormat.MPEG_4);
            mMediaRecorder.setAudioEncoder(MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.DEFAULT);
            mMediaRecorder.setVideoEncoder(MediaRecorder.VideoEncoder.DEFAULT);
            mMediaRecorder.setOutputFile("/sdcard/filenamevideo.mp4");
            mMediaRecorder.setVideoFrameRate(30);
            mMediaRecorder.setVideoSize(mPreviewSize.width, mPreviewSize.height);
            mMediaRecorder.setPreviewDisplay(mSurfaceHolder.getSurface());

            mMediaRecorder.prepare();
            mMediaRecorder.start(); 

            mRecordingStatus = true;

            return true;

    }

    public void stopMediaRecorder() {
        mServiceCamera.reconnect();

        mMediaRecorder.stop();
        mMediaRecorder.reset();

        mServiceCamera.stopPreview();
        mMediaRecorder.release();

        mServiceCamera.release();
        mServiceCamera = null;
    }
}

This is sample code, you need to add your own logic around and also handle exceptions accordingly.