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.

Answer 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.

Answer 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;
    }
}

Answer 3

I've been there and I've done that. You need a camera that has WIA drivers. Several ones do it. It's not easy but can be done for sure.

Answer 4

As for a WIA C# wrapper, I came across ScanWIA on Codeplex. It doesn't have a whole lot of documentation. However, reading the source code might help. Also, the project has a demo project that you may tailor to get pictures from a camera.