[salopge]

Hi

I'm developing Midlet which use image captured from camera.

I saw that Nokia would support snapshot from camera on 3rd handsets.

So I tested on that handsets but in almost all these handsets it is not worked properly.

I tested on 7370, 6111, 7380 and 6280 but I successed only on 6280 ( with setting createPlayer("capture://image") and using getsnapshot() ).

I think that they(7370, 6111 and 6280) do not support getsnapshot() function. (I mean I cannot get image by using standard way)

Are there any other ways for getting snaphot image from camera?

Or Is it impossible to get image on these handsets? If so why do you tell a lie that we can capture image on all handsets.

[hnipak]

How about "capture://video"?

"For media capture, the URL string takes the special format capture://audio for audio capture or capture://video for still-image capture on a camera phone."


My question is: does mmapi in s40 3rd edition allow front camera access?

Thanks!

[dcrocha]

Hi all,

Not all Series 40 3rd edition handsets support camera photo capture. If I'm not wrong 6280 is the first one to support it, so the other ones cited don't have this capability.

Create a player with "capture://image", and then use getSnapshot() on a VideoControl to take a picture.

Daniel

[hnipak]

"Not all Series 40 3rd edition handsets support camera photo capture..."

What a mess!!! There's nothing one can count on... :-(

The more different level of j2me implementation in devices (even of the same 'family'!), the less I feel like playing with j2me at all...

[brokendove]

Originally Posted by salopge

Are there any other ways for getting snaphot image from camera?

Or Is it impossible to get image on these handsets? If so why do you tell a lie that we can capture image on all handsets.

I am not sure where you saw that camera capture support is provided on all handsets, but maybe they mean that the camera capture support with MMAPI is provided on only selected phones. Almost all phones with a camera would allow you to capture images via native applications, I suppose. Using MMAPI you can easily find out the capabilities of a phone before creating camera capture applications for it.

[hnipak]

You are right the vendor is free to choose what a phone will be capable of, yet,
I'd expect (and welcome!) a more unified behaviour of phones of some series & edition not only for users , but also for developers.

By the way, how is the statement that native application allow anyone to capture images relevant to a discussion on j2me and mmapi?

[brokendove]

Originally Posted by hnipak

You are right the vendor is free to choose what a phone will be capable of, yet,
I'd expect (and welcome!) a more unified behaviour of phones of some series & edition not only for users , but also for developers.

By the way, how is the statement that native application allow anyone to capture images relevant to a discussion on j2me and mmapi?

Sorry I was replying to the original poster. You are right about the implementations of MMAPI in particular and J2ME in general being arbitrary. I had written something about this here:

http://weblogs.java.net/blog/gvix/ar...ated_with.html

When I say that native applications allow antone to capture images, I am saying that the documentation that the original poster read may have been saying that capturing of images is possible with the phone (using native applications) but not via J2ME.

[hnipak]

I absolutely agree with the complaints in your "frustrated with" blog entry. Thank you.

[dcrocha]

Hi,

I really expect a more unified support on Series 40 phones from now on, so let's hope for the best.

The fragmentation issues with J2ME implementations are indeed quite annoying, but I think the problem lies specially with Mobile Media API, because it was loosely defined and has a (big) number of OPTIONAL components, and then we see different phones (even from the same series) supporting different things.

I don't see the same level of problem with any other J2ME APIs. In order to tackle the issue, Forum Nokia will be releasing (March 20th) a document which makes crystal clear how the MMAPI is supported in all the devices, to help developers set the correct expectations when developing apps for Nokia platforms.

Daniel

[brokendove]

Originally Posted by dcrocha

Hi,

I really expect a more unified support on Series 40 phones from now on, so let's hope for the best.

The fragmentation issues with J2ME implementations are indeed quite annoying, but I think the problem lies specially with Mobile Media API, because it was loosely defined and has a (big) number of OPTIONAL components, and then we see different phones (even from the same series) supporting different things.

I don't see the same level of problem with any other J2ME APIs. In order to tackle the issue, Forum Nokia will be releasing (March 20th) a document which makes crystal clear how the MMAPI is supported in all the devices, to help developers set the correct expectations when developing apps for Nokia platforms.

Daniel

This document will be widely appreciated as long as it accurately identifies correct emulator and device implementations of MMAPI.

The problem with MMAPI is the stress on format and protocol agnostic feature set, which led to it being a very generalized API. However, the same feature set has led to it being an open and extensible API too. So, it's really the two sides of the same coin. A unified testing initiative would alleviate these concerns across developers IMHO.

[jozart]

Does the 6270 support image capture? If not, is it possible that this will be supported in the future with FW upgrade?

(I was looking forward to developing apps for a cohesive family of new handsets, not just one or maybe two.)

[jozart]

Note that the Series 40 FAQ (v2.0) claims that Series 40 Platform 3rd Edition builds on the capabilities provided in previous releases by providing:

Mobile Media API (JSR-135), which adds camera and video support.

This statement together with the fact that most of S40 3rd Edition's competitors (eg, Sony Ericsson) already support image capture via MMAPI led me to conclude that S40 3rd edition handsets *would* support image capture via MMAPI.

Only later is there clarification in the FAQ that image capture is only available on some S40 3rd Ed. handsets!

[dcrocha]

For now, only 6280 supports image capture, but as I said I'm expecting more releases in the near future.

Regarding the documentation, I will recommend to the docs team to make corrections on it to make clearer that this feature is being added gradually to the new handsets, and it's not, at the moment, a platform feature.

Daniel

[trobro]

Why does Nokia use createPlayer("capture://image") for taking snapshots when everybody else use createPlayer("capture://video")?? So frustrating.

[trobro]

No that I think about it, even Nokia S60 use createPlayer("capture://video") so why not Nokia S40?