How to distinguish between camera and movie mode in Android?

Question

I am using Android 6.0 and open the camera intent by

Intent intent = new Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);
try {
     getApplication().startActivity(intent);
} catch (final ActivityNotFoundException e) {
     e.printStackTrace();
}

It will open my camera intent. If I press the movie button, the movie GUI will be shown. I want to distinguish the camera and movie intent. How can I know it by programming because both of them have the name are camera. This is my code to get current process name

    String foregroundProcess = null;
    UsageStatsManager mUsageStatsManager = (UsageStatsManager) getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Service.USAGE_STATS_SERVICE);
    long time = System.currentTimeMillis();

    UsageEvents usageEvents = mUsageStatsManager.queryEvents(time - 1000 * 3600, time);
    UsageEvents.Event event = new UsageEvents.Event();
    while (usageEvents.hasNextEvent()) {
        usageEvents.getNextEvent(event);
        if(event.getEventType() == UsageEvents.Event.MOVE_TO_FOREGROUND) {
            foregroundProcess = event.getPackageName();
        }
    }

    //Convert package name to application name
    final PackageManager pm = getApplicationContext().getPackageManager();
    ApplicationInfo ai;
    try {
        ai = pm.getApplicationInfo(foregroundProcess, 0);
    } catch (final PackageManager.NameNotFoundException e) {
        ai = null;
    }
    String applicationName = (String) (ai != null ? pm.getApplicationLabel(ai) : "(unknown)");
    return applicationName;

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 18 '17 at 12:54

2

You can request that the camera take a picture via ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE, and you can request that the camera record a video via ACTION_VIDEO_CAPTURE.

If the camera app that you are testing allows the user to switch between those modes, when launched from these Intent actions, IMHO that is a bug in the camera app.

answered Jan 18 '17 at 12:54

CommonsWare

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Thanks. I update my question for more clear. Actually, I can switch two modes: camera and movie in rooted phone by pressing the record button. Using above function, I can get the current application name, and they are shown same result as camera in both modes – John Jan 18 '17 at 13:00
@user8264: The user is welcome to choose the same app for either `Intent`, and you have no means of distinguishing between whether that app is taking a picture, recording a video, on its settings screen, or doing anything else. If you need that degree of control, do not use these `Intent` actions and implement camera functionality directly in your app. Besides, `UsageStatsManager` is not real-time ("NOTE: The last few minutes of the event log will be truncated to prevent abuse by applications"), and so your existing code will not work reliably. – CommonsWare Jan 18 '17 at 13:02
So, we have no way to distinguish these modes. My goal is to detect the current process name such as camera capture and camera record. Is it possible? – John Jan 18 '17 at 13:06
@user8264: No, because usually it will be the same process name in either case, and you cannot get the current process name from `UsageStatsManager`, for privacy and security reasons. Moreover, if you were the one that launched these `Intents`, you know what you asked for. – CommonsWare Jan 18 '17 at 13:08
without security issue, how could I known it? Because I am working in rooted phone – John Jan 18 '17 at 13:13
@user8264: You still have no good way of knowing whether an arbitrary camera app is in still picture mode or in video-recording mode. If you are certain of the specific camera app (e.g., you control the device), you could reverse-engineer it, or examine its UI in `uiautomatorviewer`, and then try to find out what mode it is in by examining various widgets in its UI. I don't know all the details, as I do not work in rooted environments. – CommonsWare Jan 18 '17 at 13:48

Marcin Orlowski · Answer 2 · 2017-01-18T12:57:36.850

1

The app that handles MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE should not allow you to switch to video mode because you clearly called it in intent to capturing the image (same for the ACTION_VIDEO_CAPTURE action, which should stick to video mode only). I'd report this issue to app vendor instead of wasting time trying to work around others' bugs.

edited Jan 18 '17 at 12:57

answered Jan 18 '17 at 12:55

Marcin Orlowski

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I can switch by press the record button in default camera app. It will go to record camera app. – John Jan 18 '17 at 12:57

How to distinguish between camera and movie mode in Android?

2 Answers2