Question

I’m working on a security camera application using the webcam that takes a photo every x amount of ms the user chooses. (Default at 2000ms, or 2s) Currently the files are stored on the user’s hard drive by default.

What I’m trying to do is instead of saving it as 1.bmp, 2.bmp, 3.bmp, etc: but to the date and time, ex. “Jul 03 12:14:53.bmp” using this – DateTime.Now.ToString(“MMM dd hh:mm:ss”)

However obviously I’m having no luck, and continue to get errors. So here’s my code before I got all these errors, and any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Dim frame As Integer

Private Sub Timer2_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Timer2.Tick
    frame += 1

    Dim r As RECT = New RECT()

    GetWindowRect(hWnd, r)

    Dim cWidth As Integer = r.right - r.left
    Dim cHeight As Integer = r.bottom - r.top

    Dim bmp As Bitmap = New Bitmap(cWidth, cHeight)

    Dim gfx As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(bmp)
    Dim gHdc As IntPtr = gfx.GetHdc()

    'refresh the image
    SendMessage(hWnd, WM_CAP_GRAB_FRAME, IntPtr.Zero, IntPtr.Zero)

    PrintWindow(hWnd, gHdc, 0)
    gfx.ReleaseHdc(gHdc)
    gfx.Dispose()

    bmp.Save("photos-taken\" & frame & ".bmp")

    bmp.Dispose()
End Sub

Private Sub RecordToolStripMenuItem_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles RecordToolStripMenuItem.Click
    If Not Directory.Exists("photos-taken") Then
        Directory.CreateDirectory("photos-taken")
    End If

    If RecordToolStripMenuItem.Checked = False Then
        RecordToolStripMenuItem.Checked = True
        frame = 0
        Timer2.Interval = 2000
        Timer2.Start()
    Else
        RecordToolStripMenuItem.Checked = False
        frame = 0
        Timer2.Stop()
    End If
End Sub

Answer 1

bmp.Save("photos-taken\" & DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd_HHmmss") & ".bmp")

You could substitute any date format that’s a valid file name (i.e. no /, \ or :), also using yyyyMMddHHmmss you get your files sorted by name in order they are saved.