Detecting when camera's iris is open on iPhone - iphone

Question

For a cutom camera overlay I need to find out, when the iris is opened, because my overlay will allways shown while the iris is close (and then animating to open).
Any ideas ?

Answer 1

You can listen for the PLCameraViewIrisAnimationDidEndNotification notification. Since this is not officially documented, you might be in violation of the Apple TOS, but I think so long as you write your code so that it's defensive against the possibility that the name or contract of this notification might change (so in the future you might not get the event) you'll probably be ok. In other words, use a timer or other technique to ensure that the thing you want done when the iris is open will definitely happen eventually even if you never get the notification...
Trivial example without the defensive programming. (Of course, you can register an interest only for this specific notification as well, see the docs for the notification center.)
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
selector:#selector(notificationCallback:)
name:nil
object:nil
];
- (void) notificationCallback:(NSNotification *) notification {
if ([[notification name] isEqualToString:#"PLCameraViewIrisAnimationDidEndNotification"]) {
NSLog(#"Iris open");
// we don't need to listen any more
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self];
}
}

Answer 2

It seems that PLCameraViewIrisAnimationDidEndNotification no longer gets notified in iOS5.
I can't figure out what is a suitable solution when the iris has finished opening, there must another option rather than using a 3 second timer.
Check here: https://devforums.apple.com/message/561008#561008

Answer 3

I have a ViewController (ALImagePickerController) which holds, initializes and presents the UIImagePickerController as a child view controller (I have another child view controller for presenting the taken image which is not shown here) and I present (as a modal) the ALImagePickerController when I want to use the camera. So during this the viewDidAppear of the ViewContoller I add an animation to bring in the camera overlay gracefully as the shutter animation disappears.
#interface ALImagePickerController ()
#property (nonatomic) UIImagePickerController *cameraController;
#property (nonatomic) CameraOverlayView *overlayView;
....
#end
#implementation ALImagePickerController
....
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
[UIApplication sharedApplication].statusBarHidden = YES;
self.cameraController = [UIImagePickerController new];
self.cameraController.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeCamera;
self.cameraController.delegate = self;
self.cameraController.allowsEditing = NO;
self.cameraController.showsCameraControls = NO;
....
self.overlayView = [CameraOverlayView new];
....
self.overlayView.alpha = 0;
self.cameraController.cameraOverlayView = self.overlayView;
....
// add as child view controller
[self addChildViewController:self.cameraController];
[self.view addSubview:self.cameraController.view];
[self.cameraController didMoveToParentViewController:self];
}
- (void)viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated {
[super viewWillDisappear:animated];
[UIApplication sharedApplication].statusBarHidden = NO;
}
- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated {
[super viewDidAppear:animated];
// smoothly bring in the overlay as the native camera shutter animation opens.
[UIView animateWithDuration:0.2 delay:0.3 options:UIViewAnimationCurveEaseOut animations:^{
self.overlayView.alpha = 1.f;
} completion:nil];
}
....
#end

Answer 4

The way I solved this problem is I initialize all the elements with the hidden property set to YES, then call a 3-second delayed selector after I call the camera, where I set all the elements to hidden = NO. It's not an ideal solution but it seems to work, and any lag after the iris is opened is negligible.

Answer 5

You should already know when the camera is ready to take a picture. At least the way I use a custom camera overlay, I init the view with something like self.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeCamera; and the other usual setup, and the camera is ready (or "iris is open") at that point.
In summary, if one is using a custom camera overlay the way I am used to using it, one will know when the iris is open because it is under your control.