Camera

Overview

The Vuzix Blade® runs on the Android platform version 5.1.1, API level 22, more commonly known as Lollipop. The camera on the device is equipped with HAL version 1.0.

As such, the camera HAL is best suited to interface with Android Camera API version 1.

It is possible to utilize the legacy framework within Android Camera API 2; however, for the best performance when using the Blade, we highly recommend utilizing Camera 1.

Further tips and tricks on tuning your app to get the best possible experience out of the Blade can be found below.

Suggestions:

1. When utilizing the Camera 1 API, set the camera to run in the background thread instead of the main UI thread. This will avoid high CPU utilization and unexpected application crashes.

2. When attempting to perform video recording, set the video resolution size equal to preview resolution size.

3. When using Camera 1, set all parameters prior to starting the preview, modifying these parameters while the preview is active will cause unexpected errors.

4. When attempting to stop and restart the preview (as you might want to do when finishing a recording or image capture), provide the system with a delay (~500ms) so the the buffer can completely send out the preview stream.

5. As the camera is designed with a fixed focus, you should not need to access any auto-focus parameters. For the other functions of 3A, we recommend using the default AE and AWB. These parameters have been tuned to get the best quality out of the camera.

6. When in high-light environments, utilize the HDR mode for still captures.

7. The Blade's camera also has access to night, landscape and sports mode for use in different environments. Giving access to these extra modes will allow users to customize their experience based on their surroundings/what they are hoping to capture.