Front facing camera in UIImagePickerController

Question

I am developing the front facing camera app in iPad2 by using the UIImagePickerController.

When I capture the image it's shows as flipped from left to right.

How do I correct this?

if ([UIImagePickerController isSourceTypeAvailable:UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeCamera]) 
    {
        UIImagePickerController *imgPkr = [[UIImagePickerController alloc] init];
        imgPkr.delegate = self;
        imgPkr.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeCamera;
        imgPkr.cameraDevice=UIImagePickerControllerCameraDeviceFront;


        UIImageView *anImageView=[[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"select%d.png",val]]];
        anImageView.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, anImageView.image.size.width, anImageView.image.size.height);
        imgPkr.cameraOverlayView = anImageView;
        [theApp.TabViewControllerObject presentModalViewController:imgPkr animated:YES];
        [imgPkr release];
    }

Answer 1

You can flip the image from the source image use this

UIImage *flippedImage = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:picture.CGImage scale:picture.scale orientation:UIImageOrientationLeftMirrored];

---

Edit: Added swift code

let flippedImage = UIImage(CGImage: picture.CGImage, scale: picture.scale, orientation:.LeftMirrored)

Answer 2

Full Working Example in Swift, which answers to the initial question of this post (tested on an iPhone 5c using iOS 8.2):

        import UIKit

        class ViewController: UIViewController, UIImagePickerControllerDelegate, UINavigationControllerDelegate, UIActionSheetDelegate {

         @IBOutlet var myUIImageView: UIImageView!

         var myUIImagePickerController: UIImagePickerController!

         override func viewDidLoad() {
             super.viewDidLoad()
         }

         override func viewWillAppear(animated: Bool) {
             println("viewWillAppear(animated: Bool) method called.")
             super.viewWillAppear(animated)
             NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().removeObserver(self)
         }

         override func viewWillDisappear(animated: Bool) {
             println("viewWillDisappear(animated: Bool) method called.")
             super.viewWillDisappear(animated)
             NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self, selector: "cameraChanged:", name: "AVCaptureDeviceDidStartRunningNotification", object: nil)
         }

         /* UIImagePickerControllerDelegate Section */
         func imagePickerController(picker: UIImagePickerController, didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo info: [NSObject : AnyObject]) {
              if(self.myUIImagePickerController.sourceType == UIImagePickerControllerSourceType.Camera) {
                 self.myUIImageView.image = info[UIImagePickerControllerEditedImage] as? UIImage
              } else {
                 self.myUIImageView.image = info[UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage] as? UIImage
              }
              self.dismissViewControllerAnimated(true, completion: nil)
         }

        func imagePickerControllerDidCancel(picker: UIImagePickerController) {
            self.dismissViewControllerAnimated(true, completion: nil)
        }

        /*
        You can choose to use one of the UIResponder methods:
        touchesBegan, touchesMoved, touchesEnded etc, in order to detect the touch
        on the UIImageView.
        */
        override func touchesEnded(touches: NSSet, withEvent event: UIEvent) {
            let touch: UITouch? = touches.anyObject() as? UITouch
            if (touch?.view == myUIImageView) {
                println("myUIImageView has been tapped by the user.")
                self.takingAPictureUsingTheCamera()
            }
        }

        func takingAPictureUsingTheCamera() {
            self.myUIImagePickerController = UIImagePickerController()
            self.myUIImagePickerController.delegate = self // Set the delegate
            self.myUIImagePickerController.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceType.Camera
            self.myUIImagePickerController.cameraDevice = UIImagePickerControllerCameraDevice.Front
    //        self.myUIImagePickerController.editing = true
            self.myUIImagePickerController.allowsEditing = true
            self.presentViewController(self.myUIImagePickerController, animated: true, completion: nil)
        }

        func cameraChanged(notification: NSNotification) {
             println("cameraChanged(notification: NSNotification) method called.")
             self.myUIImagePickerController.cameraViewTransform = CGAffineTransformIdentity
             if(self.myUIImagePickerController.cameraDevice == UIImagePickerControllerCameraDevice.Front){
                 self.myUIImagePickerController.cameraViewTransform = CGAffineTransformScale(self.myUIImagePickerController.cameraViewTransform, -1, 1)
             }
        }
       }// End class

Answer 3

I know this question is really old but it seems like this is a still a common problem. Just set a CGAffineTransform on the cameraViewTransform property on a UIImagePickerController object.

let picker = UIImagePickerController()
picker.cameraViewTransform = CGAffineTransformScale(picker.cameraViewTransform, -1, 1)

Answer 4

Updated "bandog" answer for swift 4

let picker = UIImagePickerController()
picker.cameraViewTransform = picker.cameraViewTransform.scaledBy(x: -1, y: 1)

Answer 5

Just to add how I have just achieved this without subclassing UIImagePickerController and without adding extra buttons to the camera view.

Simply listen for this notification which is fired several times whenever the camera is changed:

[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                             selector:@selector(cameraChanged:)
                                                 name:@"AVCaptureDeviceDidStartRunningNotification"
                                               object:nil];

Then use this method to flip the camera view:

- (void)cameraChanged:(NSNotification *)notification
{
    if(imagePicker.cameraDevice == UIImagePickerControllerCameraDeviceFront)
    {
        imagePicker.cameraViewTransform = CGAffineTransformIdentity;
        imagePicker.cameraViewTransform = CGAffineTransformScale(imagePicker.cameraViewTransform, -1,     1);
    } else {
        imagePicker.cameraViewTransform = CGAffineTransformIdentity;
    }
}

Answer 6

As the other answers, I had the same problem. As Yonatan Betzer mentioned, just flip the final image is only half the answer, because the preview image, displayed by the UIPickerController when you take a picture with the front camera, it's still inverted (mirrored).

Yonatan Betzer's anwser works great, but he did not mentioned how or where to put the action to change the camera device.

Based in some codes from internet, I created a Pod to get this wanted behavior:

https://github.com/lucasecf/LEMirroredImagePicker

After installed, you just have to call this two lines of code together with your UIImagePickerController:

self.mirrorFrontPicker = [[LEMirroredImagePicker alloc] initWithImagePicker:pickerController];
[self.mirrorFrontPicker mirrorFrontCamera];

And thats it, simply as that. You can check for more informations in the README of the github link.