Question

I have a little problem, with Android application:
I need to take a picture, but I need to put a transparent image over the camera display, like overlapped.

There are different ways, (but i don’t know how):

1. Using the the android camera

   Intent intent = new Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
   intent.putExtra(MediaStore.EXTRA_OUTPUT, imageUri);
   intent.putExtra(MediaStore.EXTRA_VIDEO_QUALITY, 1);
   activity.startActivityForResult(intent, Picture.CAMERA);
   

   for this, i should do anything like start this intent transparent, and my overlapped image be under.

2. Including the camera in my XML, and do the changes that I need, or something like this.

3. Download a source code of android camera from somewhere, change that like I need, and commercialize my application. (I don’t know if the license lets me do this).

4. Create my own camera (this will be ugly, and my last choice).

Good ideas are welcome.

Best Regards!

Answer 1

I’ve done this myself — at the time I couldn’t find anyone else that had. You can’t rely on the camera intent for this. The approach I would use is using a camera preview, which you can write in a class, then include in xml in a frame layout. In the same layout include a full screen image view. It takes some fiddling with zorder etc, especially when adding/removing the image.

Writing a class to control a camera preview might seem daunting, but is actually very straight forward, and gives you a lot more control than simply using the camera intent. See here for more information.