Can I take a photo in Unity using the device's camera?
Yes, this is possible. You will want to look at the WebCamTexture functionality.
You create a WebCamTexture and call its Play() function which starts the camera. WebCamTexture, as any Texture, allows you to get the pixels via a GetPixels() call. This allows you to take a snapshot in when you like, and you can save this in a Texture2D. A call to EncodeToPNG() and subsequent write to file should get you there.
Do note that the code below is a quick write-up based on the documentation. I have not tested it. You might have to select a correct device if there are more than one available.
using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
using System.IO;
public class WebCamPhotoCamera : MonoBehaviour
{
WebCamTexture webCamTexture;
void Start()
{
webCamTexture = new WebCamTexture();
GetComponent<Renderer>().material.mainTexture = webCamTexture; //Add Mesh Renderer to the GameObject to which this script is attached to
webCamTexture.Play();
}
IEnumerator TakePhoto() // Start this Coroutine on some button click
{
// NOTE - you almost certainly have to do this here:
yield return new WaitForEndOfFrame();
// it's a rare case where the Unity doco is pretty clear,
// http://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/WaitForEndOfFrame.html
// be sure to scroll down to the SECOND long example on that doco page
Texture2D photo = new Texture2D(webCamTexture.width, webCamTexture.height);
photo.SetPixels(webCamTexture.GetPixels());
photo.Apply();
//Encode to a PNG
byte[] bytes = photo.EncodeToPNG();
//Write out the PNG. Of course you have to substitute your_path for something sensible
File.WriteAllBytes(your_path + "photo.png", bytes);
}
}
For those trying to get the camera to render live feed, here's how I managed to pull it off. First, I edited Bart's answer so the texture would be assigned on Update rather than just on Start:
void Start()
{
webCamTexture = new WebCamTexture();
webCamTexture.Play();
}
void Update()
{
GetComponent<RawImage>().texture = webCamTexture;
}
Then I attached the script to a GameObject with a RawImage component. You can easily create one by Right Click -> UI -> RawImage in the Hierarchy in the Unity Editor (this requires Unity 4.6 and above). Running it should show a live feed of the camera in your view. As of this writing, Unity 5 supports the use of webcams in the free personal edition of Unity 5.
I hope this helps anyone looking for a good way to capture live camera feed in Unity.
It is possible. I highly recommend you look at WebcamTexture Unity API. It has some useful functions:
- GetPixel() -- Returns pixel color at coordinates (x, y).
- GetPixels() -- Get a block of pixel colors.
- GetPixels32() -- Returns the pixels data in raw format.
- MarkNonReadable() -- Marks WebCamTexture as unreadable
- Pause() -- Pauses the camera.
- Play() -- Starts the camera.
- Stop() -- Stops the camera.