I\'m attempting to access the raw feed of android\'s front facing camera. By default, the front facing camera\'s preview is flipped horizontally so users can see themselves
The data from the front camera is as the camera the sees it, looking at you. The left side of its image is your right side. I think this is what you want already? When put onto a SurfaceView it is flipped so it acts as you say, but that's a separate cosmetic transformation.
At least, this is how every device I've seen works and I've looked hard at this to implement front camera support in Barcode Scanner / Barcode Scanner+.