Question

It would be great if I could get advice on my problem: I am working with an application that should show the user a list of attached PC cameras. For example, using my notebook I have one built-in web camera and one USB camera. When running the application, the user should be able to select the desired device and create a photo with it.

I have worked with this issue for several days and researched using the following existing frameworks: JMF, FMJ, VLCJ, Xuggler, JMyron, JavaFX, JavaCV.

Some of them have been deprecated; others requires installation of the SDK for each client PC. The main requirement of my application is portability, however, and that makes me wearing of using external SDK’s.

Is it possible to complete this task using only Java?

Right now my application should work only on Windows OS.

So, could I please have some advice on how to solve my problem?

Regards, Evgeniy

Answer 1

I’m sorry that I posted the question so early. I’ve just resolved this problem. I used LTI-CIVIL. It has not been updated for 5 years… Anyway, it works fine for all my web camers. I have changed a bit one of the usage examples to switch between existing devices.
Here is my code:

    public class CaptureFrame extends ImageFrame
{
private Map <String, String>cams = new HashMap<String, String>();
public static void main(String[] args) throws CaptureException
{
    new CaptureFrame(DefaultCaptureSystemFactorySingleton.instance()).run();
}

private CaptureSystem system;
private CaptureStream captureStream;
private final CaptureSystemFactory factory;
private volatile boolean disposing = false;

public CaptureFrame(CaptureSystemFactory factory)
{   
    super("LTI-CIVIL");
    this.factory = factory;
}

public void run() throws CaptureException
{
    initCapture();

    setLocation(200, 200);
    addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter()
    {
        public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e)
        {
            try
            {
                disposeCapture();
            } catch (CaptureException e1)
            {
                e1.printStackTrace();
            }
            System.exit(0);
        }
    });
    setVisible(true);
    pack();

    system = factory.createCaptureSystem();
    system.init();
    List <CaptureDeviceInfo>list = system.getCaptureDeviceInfoList();
    String[] possibilities = new String[list.size()];
    int i=0;
    for (CaptureDeviceInfo info : list){
        possibilities[i] = info.getDescription();
        cams.put(info.getDescription(), info.getDeviceID());
        i++;
    }
    String s = (String) JOptionPane.showInputDialog(
            this,
            "Please, choose needed web camera:\n",
            "Select one...",
            JOptionPane.PLAIN_MESSAGE,
            null,
            possibilities, null);
    captureStream = system.openCaptureDeviceStream(cams.get(s));
    captureStream.setObserver(new MyCaptureObserver());
    setSize(captureStream.getVideoFormat().getWidth(), captureStream.getVideoFormat().getHeight());
    startCapture();
}



public void initCapture() throws CaptureException
{
    system = factory.createCaptureSystem();
    system.init();
}

public void startCapture() throws CaptureException
{
    captureStream.start();
}

public void disposeCapture() throws CaptureException
{
    disposing = true;
    if (captureStream != null)
    {   System.out.println("disposeCapture: stopping capture stream...");
        captureStream.stop();
        System.out.println("disposeCapture: stopped capture stream.");
        captureStream.dispose();
        captureStream = null;
    }
    if (system != null)
        system.dispose();
    System.out.println("disposeCapture done.");
}

class MyCaptureObserver implements CaptureObserver
{
    public void onError(CaptureStream sender, CaptureException e)
    {   
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    public void onNewImage(CaptureStream sender, com.lti.civil.Image image)
    {   
        if (disposing)
            return;
        try
        {
            setImage(AWTImageConverter.toBufferedImage(image));
        }
        catch (Throwable t)
        {   t.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}
}

Also the size of my project is only about 3 MB with all .dll libraries for Windows OS

I hope it would help somebody.

Regards, Evgeniy