Android L Camera on TK1

Hi All,

I’m trying to get Android running on a Nvidia Jetson TK1, so I can create apk’s in Unity3d (see: http://unity3d.com) game engine to run on the Jetson. In short: the problem is that I cannot access the camera in Android, it gives the error in the Gapps Camera App: “Camera Error: Can’t connect to the camera”.

Let me tell you what I did so far:

  • First I created an apk (flappyBird tutorial :P) in Unity3d to check if it would work on my phone (Nexus 4 with Android 5.0.1). It did!
  • I want to use OpenCV in the Unity3d app, so with openCV I created a demo app to see if OpenCV would work. One of the examples uses the camera, so I could test the camera in an app made with Unity3d. Also this app works on my phone.
  • Then I started with the Jetson: I started with the source provided by Nvidia. Since this was my first time compiling Android, it took a while :) A nice thing is that E-Con systems also provides a Evaluation Binary (See: http://www.e-consystems.com/jetson-tk1-android.asp) to be able to test Android on the Jetson. The e-con version of Android 5.0 was easily installed and I started testing. I attached a USB webcam. In the standard google camera app, the camera is working, however, the camera is not working in the Unity3d app. This sucks!
  • So I was hopeful that the Nvidia version of Android for the Jetson would be better, and that it would work in the Nvidia version. It does not, however, also the google Camera app does not work and gives the error I wrote above.

What to do next? I’m new to Android as a developer, so I have no clue how I can debug this. I expected it to have something to do with the permission xmls (in /system/etc/permissions), so I change the Nvidia xmls for the versions of the e-con xmls. This did not make a difference. I also expected it having to do something with the external camera, but I cannot seem to find something about that.

What can I do to debug this? And what am I doing wrong?

I hope someone can help me out!

Thank you!

Nvidia haven’t provided Android HAL with their Android source. Android HAL is the one which connects Android application and Camera driver. e-con Systems (www.e-consystems.com) supports Android HAL for standard UVC camera. Since the google camera works on e-con binary, it looks like the unity3d may be expecting few other sensors apart from camera. Probably it requires Accelerometer or something ? You can contact e-con for any customization on the binary/source.

Thanks
Gomathisankar.P

  • Android L does not support HAL UVC camera (Lollipop 5.0)
  • Jedroid v2.0.1 support UVC camera but project is stopped (KitKat 4.x)
  • e-consystems binary on SD card evaluate version (Lollipop 5.0) - waiting for a quote on full version.

right?

So I am wondering if someone can write or share a howto regarding HAL UVC camera integration starting from Android L official NVIDIA manifest.

thanks
moscamich

I have tried the usb= in nvcamera.conf but the native camera apk disappears after initial boot due to no camera detected.

Here is some info on someone who posted it working on the nexus 7:

https://plus.google.com/+JacobLoeb/posts/5dTBT3sPPve

If “disappears” means the device special file in “/dev”, it sounds like a udev rule changed it…possibly the file changed name or sub-directory rather than actually going away.