Taking picture while recording video on Android

Question

I have written the Android service shown below for recording the front cam in the background. This works very well. But now I would like to also take a picture every 5 seconds while recording. Is this somehow possible? When I try to open a second camera (in another service) I'm getting an error.

public class RecorderService extends Service implements SurfaceHolder.Callback {

    private WindowManager windowManager;
    private SurfaceView surfaceView;
    private Camera camera = null;
    private MediaRecorder mediaRecorder = null;

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        // Create new SurfaceView, set its size to 1x1, move it to the top left corner and set this service as a callback
        windowManager = (WindowManager) this.getSystemService(Context.WINDOW_SERVICE);
        surfaceView = new SurfaceView(this);
        WindowManager.LayoutParams layoutParams = new WindowManager.LayoutParams(
                1, 1,
                WindowManager.LayoutParams.TYPE_SYSTEM_OVERLAY,
                WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_WATCH_OUTSIDE_TOUCH,
                PixelFormat.TRANSLUCENT
        );
        layoutParams.gravity = Gravity.LEFT | Gravity.TOP;
        windowManager.addView(surfaceView, layoutParams);
        surfaceView.getHolder().addCallback(this);
    }

    @Override
    public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
        Intent notificationIntent = new Intent(this, MainActivity.class);

        PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0,
                notificationIntent, 0);

        Notification notification = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)
                //.setSmallIcon(R.mipmap.app_icon)
                .setContentTitle("Background Video Recorder")
                .setContentText("")
                .setContentIntent(pendingIntent).build();

        startForeground(MainActivity.NOTIFICATION_ID_RECORDER_SERVICE, notification);
        return Service.START_NOT_STICKY;
    }

    // Method called right after Surface created (initializing and starting MediaRecorder)
    @Override
    public void surfaceCreated(SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder) {
        camera = Camera.open(1);
        mediaRecorder = new MediaRecorder();
        camera.unlock();

        mediaRecorder.setPreviewDisplay(surfaceHolder.getSurface());
        mediaRecorder.setCamera(camera);
        mediaRecorder.setAudioSource(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.CAMCORDER);
        mediaRecorder.setVideoSource(MediaRecorder.VideoSource.CAMERA);
        mediaRecorder.setProfile(CamcorderProfile.get(CamcorderProfile.QUALITY_720P));

        FileUtil.createDir("/storage/emulated/0/Study/Camera");
        mediaRecorder.setOutputFile("/storage/emulated/0/Study/Camera/" + Long.toString(System.currentTimeMillis()) + ".mp4");

        try { mediaRecorder.prepare(); } catch (Exception e) {}
        mediaRecorder.start();

        try {
            camera.setPreviewDisplay(surfaceHolder);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        Runnable runnable = new PictureThread(camera);
        Thread thread = new Thread(runnable);
        thread.start();
    }

    // Stop recording and remove SurfaceView
    @Override
    public void onDestroy() {
        mediaRecorder.stop();
        mediaRecorder.reset();
        mediaRecorder.release();

        camera.lock();
        camera.release();

        windowManager.removeView(surfaceView);
    }

    @Override
    public void surfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder, int format, int width, int height) {}

    @Override
    public void surfaceDestroyed(SurfaceHolder surfaceHolder) {}

    @Override
    public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) { return null; }
}

Edit: I have now written a thread PictureThread. This thread is started from RecorderService and tries to take a picture while video recording.

public class PictureThread implements Runnable {
    private final static String TAG = PictureThread.class.getSimpleName();

    private Camera camera;

    PictureThread(Camera camera) {
        this.camera = camera;
    }

    @Override
    public void run() {
        camera.startPreview();
        camera.takePicture(shutterCallback, rawCallback, jpegCallback);
    }

    Camera.ShutterCallback shutterCallback = new Camera.ShutterCallback() {
        public void onShutter() {
        }
    };

    Camera.PictureCallback rawCallback = new Camera.PictureCallback() {
        public void onPictureTaken(byte[] data, Camera camera) {
        }
    };

    Camera.PictureCallback jpegCallback = new Camera.PictureCallback() {
        public void onPictureTaken(byte[] data, Camera camera) {
            Log.i(TAG, "onPictureTaken - jpeg");
        }
    };
}

Unfortunately jpegCallback gets never called (i.e. the Log message is never printed). When I open the camera app of my tablet then I can take pictures while video recording, so this should be possible.

I have also tried the Camera2 API example as suggested by Alex Cohn (https://github.com/mobapptuts/android_camera2_api_video_app). Recording a video works and also taking a picture works but when I try to take a picture while recording, no picture is created (but also no error). Nevertheless, I have found this example app not working very reliable (perhaps there is another example app).

Edit 2: The shutterCallback and rawCallback of takePicture gets called but the data of the rawCallback is null. The jpegCallback gets never called.. Any idea why and how this can be solved? I have also tried to wait in the thread for a period of time to give the callback time for being called and I have tried to make the callbacks static in my main activity (so that it gets not garbage collected). Nothing worked.

Answer 1

Edit:

With the clarification:

The old camera API supports calling takePicture() while video is being recorded, if Camera.Parameters.isVideoSnapshotSupported reports true on the device is question.

Just hold on to the same camera instance you're passing into the MediaRecorder, and call Camera.takePicture() on it.

Camera2 also supports this with more flexibility, by creating a session with preview, recording, and JPEG outputs at the same time.

Original answer:

If you mean taking pictures with the back camera, while recording with the front camera - that's device-dependent. Some devices have enough hardware resources to run multiple cameras at once, but most won't (they share processing hardware between the two cameras).

The only way to tell if multiple cameras can be used at once is to try opening a second camera when one is already open. If it works, you should be good to go; if not, that device doesn't support multiple cameras at once.