ImageReader.OnImageAvailableListener() not being called when taking a picture

Question

I have a Camera App developed for Android 26 SDK. I have been using it happily with a Motorola G5 and G6 but when I move to a Motorola G7 the app crashes when I press the button to take a picture in my app.

The G7 is running Android 9. I have another Android 9 phone a Samsung S10 plus. The S10 plus does not crash when I press the button for taking a picture.

While debugging I noticed that the G7 doesn't call ImageReader.OnImageAvailableListener while the S10 does. Looking at the code this is where the image is saved for use later on in CameraCaptureSession.CaptureCallback. The callback expects bytes to be populated and crashes when it isn't (I haven't included the stack trace because it's not a little unhelpful but I can if you think you would like to see it).

I can get the G7 to save the image if I run it slowly through debug on 'some' occasions.

So I have a button that calls the function onImageCaptureClick() inside it does a bunch of stuff but one of the things it does is create an ImageReader.OnImageAvailableListener. The OnImageAvailableListener saves the image and populates a variable bytes from the image buffer. This onImageAvailableListener is attached to my reader by using reader.setOnImageAvailableListener(readerListener, null), and this listener is never used. When I get in to the CaptureCallBack the class variable bytes is not populated and the app crashes.

Do you have any idea where I would look to solve this?

protected void onImageCaptureClick() {
    if (null == mCameraDevice) {
        logger.debug("null == mCameraDevice");
        Log.e(TAG, "cameraDevice is null");
        return;
    }
    CameraManager manager = (CameraManager) getSystemService(Context.CAMERA_SERVICE);

    try {
        CameraCharacteristics characteristics = manager.getCameraCharacteristics(mCameraDevice.getId());
        Size[] jpegSizes = null;
        if (characteristics != null) {
            jpegSizes = characteristics.get(CameraCharacteristics.SCALER_STREAM_CONFIGURATION_MAP).getOutputSizes(ImageFormat.JPEG);
        }
        int width = 640;
        int height = 480;
        if (jpegSizes != null && 0 < jpegSizes.length) {
            width = jpegSizes[0].getWidth();
            height = jpegSizes[0].getHeight();
        }
        ImageReader reader = ImageReader.newInstance(width, height, ImageFormat.JPEG, 1);
        List < Surface > outputSurfaces = new ArrayList < > (2);
        outputSurfaces.add(reader.getSurface());
        outputSurfaces.add(new Surface(mTextureView.getSurfaceTexture()));
        final CaptureRequest.Builder captureBuilder = mCameraDevice.createCaptureRequest(CameraDevice.TEMPLATE_STILL_CAPTURE);
        captureBuilder.addTarget(reader.getSurface());

        if (mFlashMode == FLASH_MODE_OFF) {
            captureBuilder.set(CaptureRequest.FLASH_MODE, CaptureRequest.FLASH_MODE_OFF);
            logger.debug("FLASH OFF");
        }

        if (mFlashMode == CONTROL_AE_MODE_ON) {
            captureBuilder.set(CaptureRequest.CONTROL_AE_MODE,
                CaptureRequest.CONTROL_AE_MODE_ON);
            captureBuilder.set(CaptureRequest.FLASH_MODE,
                CaptureRequest.FLASH_MODE_TORCH);
            logger.debug("FLASH ON");
        }

        if (mFlashMode == CONTROL_AE_MODE_ON_AUTO_FLASH) {

            captureBuilder.set(CaptureRequest.CONTROL_AE_MODE, CaptureRequest.CONTROL_AE_MODE_ON_AUTO_FLASH);
            captureBuilder.set(CaptureRequest.FLASH_MODE,
                CaptureRequest.FLASH_MODE_OFF);
            logger.debug("FLASH AUTO");
        }

        captureBuilder.set(CaptureRequest.SCALER_CROP_REGION, zoom);

        int rotation = getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay().getRotation();
        captureBuilder.set(CaptureRequest.JPEG_ORIENTATION, ORIENTATIONS.get(rotation));

        final File file = new File(_pictureUri.getPath());
        logger.debug("OnImageCaptureClick: _pictureUri is: " + _pictureUri.getPath());
        // ************************************
        // this listener is not used on the G7,
        // and so the image isn't saved.
        // ************************************
        ImageReader.OnImageAvailableListener readerListener = new ImageReader.OnImageAvailableListener() {
            @Override
            public void onImageAvailable(ImageReader reader) {
                Image image = null;
                try {
                    image = reader.acquireLatestImage();
                    ByteBuffer buffer = image.getPlanes()[0].getBuffer();
                    bytes = new byte[buffer.capacity()];
                    buffer.get(bytes);
                    logger.debug("onImageCaptureClick, the filesize to save is: " + bytes.toString());
                    save();
                } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                } catch (IOException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                } finally {
                    if (image != null) {
                        image.close();
                    }
                }
            }


            private void save() throws IOException {
                OutputStream output = null;
                try {
                    output = new FileOutputStream(file);
                    output.write(bytes);
                } finally {
                    if (null != output) {
                        output.close();
                    }
                }
            }


        };
        // ********************************************************
        // the reader sets the listener here but it is never called
        // and when I get in to the CaptureCallback the BitmapUtils
        // expects bytes to be populated and crashes the app
        // ********************************************************
        reader.setOnImageAvailableListener(readerListener, null);
        final CameraCaptureSession.CaptureCallback captureListener = new CameraCaptureSession.CaptureCallback() {

            @Override
            public void onCaptureCompleted(@NonNull CameraCaptureSession session, @NonNull CaptureRequest request, @NonNull TotalCaptureResult result) {
                super.onCaptureCompleted(session, request, result);

                try {
                    BitmapUtils.addTimeStampAndRotate(_pictureUri, bytes);


                    Intent intent = new Intent(CameraActivity.this, CameraReviewPhotoActivity.class);
                    intent.putExtra(MediaStore.EXTRA_OUTPUT, _pictureUri);
                    startActivityForResult(intent, CameraActivity.kRequest_Code_Approve_Image);

                } catch (IOException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                } catch (ImageReadException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                } catch (ImageWriteException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }

            }
        };

        mCameraDevice.createCaptureSession(outputSurfaces, new CameraCaptureSession.StateCallback() {
            @Override
            public void onConfigured(CameraCaptureSession session) {
                try {
                    session.capture(captureBuilder.build(), captureListener, null);

                } catch (CameraAccessException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }

            @Override
            public void onConfigureFailed(CameraCaptureSession session) {
                Log.w(TAG, "Failed to configure camera");
            }
        }, null);
    } catch (CameraAccessException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } finally {
        takePictureButton.setEnabled(false);
        mTextureView.setEnabled(false);
    }

Answer 1

I think I have found the solution to this.

I have the following phones:

• Samsung S10 Plus
• Motorola G7
• Motorola G6

My app works on the S10 and the G6. The S10 and G6 both call the OnImageAvailableListener function before the onCaptureCompleted callback. The G7 however calls them both the other way around onCaptureCompleted then OnImageAvailableListener .

According to https://proandroiddev.com/understanding-camera2-api-from-callbacks-part-1-5d348de65950 the correct way is onCaptureCompleted then OnImageAvailableListener .

In my code I am assuming that OnImageAvailableListener has saved the image and then OnCaptureCompleted tries to manipulate it, which causes the crash.

Looking at the INFO_SUPPORTED_HARDWARE_LEVEL of each device I have the following levels of support from none level 0 to uber level 3.

• Samsung S10 Plus reports device level support level 1
• Motorola G7 reports device level support level 3
• Motorola G6 reports device level support level 2

My assumption at this point is that the events fire in a different order when you support the android-camera2 API at Level 3 compared to other levels.

Hope this helps

Answer 2

The API makes no guarantee about the order of onCaptureCompleted and OnImageAvailableListener. They may arrive in arbitrary order, depending on the device, capture settings, the load on the device, or even the particular OS build you have.

Please don't make any assumptions about it.

Instead, if you need both callbacks to fire before you process something, then wait for both to happen before you move forward. For example, check if the other callback has fired in each callback, and if so, call the method to do the processing.