AVCaptureSession returning blank image on iphone 4 - iphone

Question

I am trying to call the 'media capture putting it all together' example from AVFoundation Programming Guide. I keep getting a blank (black) image. Is there anything I need to call first to have this code access the camera?
thanks
This is unmodified code from the example:
-(void) setupCapture {
AVCaptureSession *session = [[AVCaptureSession alloc] init];
session.sessionPreset = AVCaptureSessionPresetLow;
AVCaptureDevice *device = [AVCaptureDevice defaultDeviceWithMediaType:AVMediaTypeVideo];
NSError *error = nil;
AVCaptureDeviceInput *input = [AVCaptureDeviceInput deviceInputWithDevice:device error:&error];
if (!input) {
// Handle the error appropriately.
NSLog(#"no input");
return;
}
[session addInput:input];
AVCaptureVideoDataOutput *output = [[[AVCaptureVideoDataOutput alloc] init] autorelease];
[session addOutput:output];
output.videoSettings = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject:[NSNumber numberWithInt:kCVPixelFormatType_32BGRA]
forKey:(id)kCVPixelBufferPixelFormatTypeKey];
output.minFrameDuration = CMTimeMake(1, 15);
dispatch_queue_t queue = dispatch_queue_create("MyQueue", NULL);
[output setSampleBufferDelegate:self queue:queue];
dispatch_release(queue);
[session startRunning];
}
UIImage *imageFromSampleBuffer(CMSampleBufferRef sampleBuffer) {
CVImageBufferRef imageBuffer = CMSampleBufferGetImageBuffer(sampleBuffer);
// Lock the base address of the pixel buffer.
CVPixelBufferLockBaseAddress(imageBuffer,0);
// Get the number of bytes per row for the pixel buffer.
size_t bytesPerRow = CVPixelBufferGetBytesPerRow(imageBuffer);
// Get the pixel buffer width and height.
size_t width = CVPixelBufferGetWidth(imageBuffer);
size_t height = CVPixelBufferGetHeight(imageBuffer);
// Create a device-dependent RGB color space.
static CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = NULL;
if (colorSpace == NULL) {
colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
if (colorSpace == NULL) {
// Handle the error appropriately.
return nil;
}
}
// Get the base address of the pixel buffer.
void *baseAddress = CVPixelBufferGetBaseAddress(imageBuffer);
// Get the data size for contiguous planes of the pixel buffer.
size_t bufferSize = CVPixelBufferGetDataSize(imageBuffer);
// Create a Quartz direct-access data provider that uses data we supply.
CGDataProviderRef dataProvider =
CGDataProviderCreateWithData(NULL, baseAddress, bufferSize, NULL);
// Create a bitmap image from data supplied by the data provider.
CGImageRef cgImage =
CGImageCreate(width, height, 8, 32, bytesPerRow,
colorSpace, kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipFirst | kCGBitmapByteOrder32Little,
dataProvider, NULL, true, kCGRenderingIntentDefault);
CGDataProviderRelease(dataProvider);
// Create and return an image object to represent the Quartz image.
UIImage *image = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:cgImage];
CGImageRelease(cgImage);
CVPixelBufferUnlockBaseAddress(imageBuffer, 0);
return image;
}
and my callback method is:
- (void)captureOutput:(AVCaptureOutput *)captureOutput
didOutputSampleBuffer:(CMSampleBufferRef)sampleBuffer
fromConnection:(AVCaptureConnection *)connection {
UIImage *image = imageFromSampleBuffer(sampleBuffer);
NSLog(#"am I nil?: %#", image);
self.imageV.image = image;
[self.view setNeedsDisplay];
}

Answer 1

tip 1:
do not start capturesession in main viewDidLoad method, but a little later
tip 2:
do not update your ui in the capturesession callback method, do it on the main thread.