The documentation page for Camera.setDisplayOrientation contains the following code sample stating that using it will "make the camera image show in the same orientation as the display":
public static void setCameraDisplayOrientation(Activity activity,
int cameraId, android.hardware.Camera camera) {
android.hardware.Camera.CameraInfo info =
new android.hardware.Camera.CameraInfo();
android.hardware.Camera.getCameraInfo(cameraId, info);
int rotation = activity.getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay()
.getRotation();
int degrees = 0;
switch (rotation) {
case Surface.ROTATION_0: degrees = 0; break;
case Surface.ROTATION_90: degrees = 90; break;
case Surface.ROTATION_180: degrees = 180; break;
case Surface.ROTATION_270: degrees = 270; break;
}
int result;
if (info.facing == Camera.CameraInfo.CAMERA_FACING_FRONT) {
result = (info.orientation + degrees) % 360;
result = (360 - result) % 360; // compensate the mirror
} else { // back-facing
result = (info.orientation - degrees + 360) % 360;
}
camera.setDisplayOrientation(result);
}
However, I had problems using it, sometimes the image would appear upside down. After some trial-and-error, I found that the correct code would be (replacing the last 8 lines of the method):
int result = (360 + info.orientation - degrees) % 360;
camera.setDisplayOrientation(result);
(Which means the calculation for back-facing cameras is correct for front cameras too.) The "compensate the mirror" comment is a bit weird since mirroring cannot be undone by rotating, that operation only swaps 90° and 270° rotations which doesn't really make sense to me.
So the question is: is the sample wrong indeed or am I missing something? I tried it on multiple devices, both back and front cameras and all supported orientations, so I know that my code IS working. One little detail that might be worth mentioning: all my devices returned 90° as info.orientation
.
EDIT: Here is my camera-related code, I have tested it on a Nexus One and a Samsung Galaxy S Plus. It is used in my head-tracking 3D app, the preview is shown in the lower left corner and should always have the correct orientation.
SOLUTION (sort of): It looks like the code is correct, but my testing phone (Samsung Galaxy S Plus) returns an incorrect value for the front camera's CameraInfo.orientation. There are many related discussions about the preview being shown upside down on this model (examples here and here). A way to fix is to include an option to manually rotate the image.