Controlling a Camera with WIA

Question

First of all, this is my first post in stackoverflow. I use this side very often and I found nearly everything I needed.

And now to my Question. I searched for this Question but I didn't really found anything. I wanted to write an application where I can click on a button and make a picture of a person and link that photo with the user in the database. Is it possible to control a camera with WIA? Do I need a special camera for that?

I would appreciate, if somebody could post a good Tutorial for the general use of WIA.

Solution 1

It looks like Microsoft has provided a tutorial here.

I think you'd be specifically interested in the section Capturing a Still Image from Streaming Video.

Solution 2

WIA Camera test example in C#. Took me a whole night!

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using WIA;


namespace WindowsFormsApplication1
{

    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {

    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        this.button1.Text = "Select Camera";
        this.label1.Text = "[ no camera selected ]";
    }

    private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { }
    private String _label = null;

    private void button1_Click_1(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        try
        {
        // create a new WIA common dialog box for the user to select a device from
        WIA.CommonDialog dlg = new WIA.CommonDialog();

        // show user the WIA device dialog
        Device d = dlg.ShowSelectDevice(WiaDeviceType.CameraDeviceType, true, false);

        // check if a device was selected
        if (d != null)
        {
            // Print camera properties
            richTextBox1.AppendText("\n\n Print properties:\n");
            foreach (Property p in d.Properties)
            {
            richTextBox1.AppendText(p.Name + ": " + p.get_Value() + "  ("+ p.PropertyID + ":" + p.IsReadOnly + ") \n");

            // Update UI
            if (p.PropertyID == 3) _label = (String) p.get_Value();
            if (p.PropertyID == 4) _label = _label + " - " + p.get_Value();
            this.label1.Text = _label;
            }

            // Print commands
            richTextBox1.AppendText("\n\n Print commands:\n");
            foreach (DeviceCommand dvc in d.Commands)
            {
            richTextBox1.AppendText(dvc.Name + ": " + dvc.Description + "  ("+ dvc.CommandID +") \n");
            }

            // Print events
            richTextBox1.AppendText("\n\n Print events:\n");
            foreach (DeviceEvent dve in d.Events)
            {
            richTextBox1.AppendText(dve.Name + ": " + dve.Description + "  (" + dve.Type + ") \n");
            }

            // Print item properties
            richTextBox1.AppendText("\n\n Print item properties:\n");
            foreach (Property item in d.Items[1].Properties)
            {
            richTextBox1.AppendText(item.IsReadOnly + ": " + item.Name + "  (" + item.PropertyID + ") \n");
            }


            foreach (WIA.Property p in d.Properties)
            {
            Object tempNewProperty;


            // change Exposure Compensation: value 0 to 2 (ID 2053, isReadonly False)
            if (p.PropertyID == 2053)
            {
                tempNewProperty = (int) -2000;  // can not be set to minus values, why???
                ((IProperty)p).set_Value(ref tempNewProperty);
                richTextBox1.AppendText(">>>>" + p.get_Value());
            }
            }

            // Now let's take a picture !
            d.ExecuteCommand(CommandID.wiaCommandTakePicture);
            richTextBox1.AppendText(".");

        }
        else
        {
            d = null;
            richTextBox1.AppendText("Result: no device selected or device could not be read. ");
        }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
        MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, "WIA Error!", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error);
        }
    }


    }


}



namespace WindowsFormsApplication1
{
    partial class Form1
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Required designer variable.
        /// </summary>
        private System.ComponentModel.IContainer components = null;

        /// <summary>
        /// Clean up any resources being used.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="disposing">true if managed resources should be disposed; otherwise, false.</param>
        protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
        {
            if (disposing && (components != null))
            {
                components.Dispose();
            }
            base.Dispose(disposing);
        }

        #region Windows Form Designer generated code

        /// <summary>
        /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
        /// the contents of this method with the code editor.
        /// </summary>
        private void InitializeComponent()
        {
            this.button1 = new System.Windows.Forms.Button();
            this.label1 = new System.Windows.Forms.Label();
            this.richTextBox1 = new System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox();
            this.button2 = new System.Windows.Forms.Button();
            this.SuspendLayout();
            // 
            // button1
            // 
            this.button1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(12, 12);
            this.button1.Name = "button1";
            this.button1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(137, 23);
            this.button1.TabIndex = 0;
            this.button1.Text = "button1";
            this.button1.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true;
            this.button1.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.button1_Click_1);
            // 
            // label1
            // 
            this.label1.AutoSize = true;
            this.label1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(9, 44);
            this.label1.Name = "label1";
            this.label1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(35, 13);
            this.label1.TabIndex = 1;
            this.label1.Text = "label1";
            // 
            // richTextBox1
            // 
            this.richTextBox1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(12, 60);
            this.richTextBox1.Name = "richTextBox1";
            this.richTextBox1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(946, 445);
            this.richTextBox1.TabIndex = 2;
            this.richTextBox1.Text = "";
            // 
            // button2
            // 
            this.button2.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(156, 11);
            this.button2.Name = "button2";
            this.button2.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(173, 23);
            this.button2.TabIndex = 3;
            this.button2.Text = "button2";
            this.button2.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true;
            this.button2.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.button2_Click_1);
            // 
            // Form1
            // 
            this.AutoScaleDimensions = new System.Drawing.SizeF(6F, 13F);
            this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font;
            this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(970, 517);
            this.Controls.Add(this.button2);
            this.Controls.Add(this.richTextBox1);
            this.Controls.Add(this.label1);
            this.Controls.Add(this.button1);
            this.Name = "Form1";
            this.Text = "Form1";
            this.Load += new System.EventHandler(this.Form1_Load);
            this.ResumeLayout(false);
            this.PerformLayout();

        }

        #endregion

        private System.Windows.Forms.Button button1;
        private System.Windows.Forms.Label label1;
        private System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox richTextBox1;
        private System.Windows.Forms.Button button2;
    }
}

Comments

[Renatas M.]

This is C++, but if SO wants to use C#(because of tag) it would be good to mention: The WIA Automation Library provides end-to-end image acquisition capabilities to automation-enabled application development environments and programming languages such as Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, Active Server Pages (ASP), VBScript and C#

[aardvarkk]

@Reniuz My mistake -- I didn't read the tags carefully enough. Thanks.

[MrTouch]

I found the first one. But after 2 pages i gave up. Because it wasn't really understandable for me. But looks like i have to try it again.. But if I understand this correctly, the application streams nonstop? And I can take a Picture of this "stream"? Is there any limits in the dimensions of the Photo, like it cant be better than 640x480, even if i have a very good camera? if yes i can stop right here^^

[aardvarkk]

@AytacAkyol My guess would be that the resolution you're capable of capturing depends almost entirely upon the hardware and drivers that you're using. You should be able to capture a 640x480 image from a camera that supports it. But don't count on it working across a whole ton of hardware. I agree about the difficulty -- I've never really enjoyed working with these ugly COM interfaces. But just try the examples and step through them and you'll get used to it pretty quickly. Start with enumerating the devices, get it running, and then go from there.

[NoWar]

I just tested those code based on their manual and it does not work WIA.Device device = WiaDevice.FromUserDialog(WIA.WiaDeviceType.CameraDeviceType, false);

[NoWar]

Where did you find using WIA; ?

[NoWar]

This line ` Device d = dlg.ShowSelectDevice(WiaDeviceType.CameraDeviceType, true, false);` gives an exception. SOrry your code does not work, dude.

[Doug Null]

I'm drooling to run this, but, yes, how do I install reference to WIA into VisualStudio 2017 Pro?

[Doug Null]

See easy: right-click Refs > select COM > select MS Windows Image Acq v2. WIA now builds ok.