Front facing camera in UIImagePickerController

Question

I am developing the front facing camera app in iPad2 by using the UIImagePickerController.

When I capture the image it\'s shows as flipped from left to

Answer 1

Updated "bandog" answer for swift 4

let picker = UIImagePickerController()
picker.cameraViewTransform = picker.cameraViewTransform.scaledBy(x: -1, y: 1)

Answer 2

I had the same problem - and the solution above only got me half the answer, because the user had to approve the mirrored image before getting to the next page of my app - where I use the captured image after flipping it.

To solve this I had to flip the camera view whenever I switch to the front facing camera:

- (IBAction)flipCamera:(id)sender {
if(cameraUI.cameraDevice == UIImagePickerControllerCameraDeviceFront)
{
    cameraUI.cameraDevice = UIImagePickerControllerCameraDeviceRear;
}
else {
    cameraUI.cameraDevice = UIImagePickerControllerCameraDeviceFront;
}
cameraUI.cameraViewTransform = CGAffineTransformScale(cameraUI.cameraViewTransform, -1,     1);     
}

---

Just to expand on this great answer, some typical complete code, Dec2013, iOS7 / Xcode5. Does everything. You just need an icon (cameraToggle.PNG in the example).

-(void)showTheDeviceCamera
    {
    if ( ! [UIImagePickerController isSourceTypeAvailable:UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeCamera] )
        return;

    // self.cameraController is a UIImagePickerController
    self.cameraController = [[UIImagePickerController alloc] init];
    self.cameraController.delegate = (id)self;
    self.cameraController.mediaTypes = @[(NSString *)kUTTypeImage];
    self.cameraController.allowsEditing = YES;
    self.cameraController.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeCamera;
    [self presentViewController:self.cameraController animated:YES completion:NULL];


        // Add front-rear toggle button MANUALLY, IF NECESSARY
        // (You seem to usually get it for free, on iPhone, but
        // need to add manually on an iPad.)

        UIView *buttonView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"cameraToggle"]];
        [buttonView sizeToFit];

        buttonView.userInteractionEnabled = YES;
        [self.cameraController.view addSubview:buttonView];

        UITapGestureRecognizer *tap =
            [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(_frontRearButtonClicked) ];
        tap.numberOfTapsRequired = 1;
        [buttonView addGestureRecognizer:tap];

        // we'll add it at the top right .. could be anywhere you want
        buttonView.center = CGPointMake(
                self.cameraController.view.frame.size.width-buttonView.frame.size.width,
                3.0 * buttonView.frame.size.height
                );

    }

-(void)_frontRearButtonClicked
    {
    [UIView transitionWithView:self.cameraController.view
        duration:1.0
        options:UIViewAnimationOptionAllowAnimatedContent | UIViewAnimationOptionTransitionFlipFromLeft
        animations:^{
            if ( self.cameraController.cameraDevice == UIImagePickerControllerCameraDeviceRear )
                self.cameraController.cameraDevice = UIImagePickerControllerCameraDeviceFront;
            else
                self.cameraController.cameraDevice = UIImagePickerControllerCameraDeviceRear;
        } completion:NULL];
    }

Answer 3

Full Working Example in Swift, which answers to the initial question of this post (tested on an iPhone 5c using iOS 8.2):

        import UIKit

        class ViewController: UIViewController, UIImagePickerControllerDelegate, UINavigationControllerDelegate, UIActionSheetDelegate {

         @IBOutlet var myUIImageView: UIImageView!

         var myUIImagePickerController: UIImagePickerController!

         override func viewDidLoad() {
             super.viewDidLoad()
         }

         override func viewWillAppear(animated: Bool) {
             println("viewWillAppear(animated: Bool) method called.")
             super.viewWillAppear(animated)
             NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().removeObserver(self)
         }

         override func viewWillDisappear(animated: Bool) {
             println("viewWillDisappear(animated: Bool) method called.")
             super.viewWillDisappear(animated)
             NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self, selector: "cameraChanged:", name: "AVCaptureDeviceDidStartRunningNotification", object: nil)
         }

         /* UIImagePickerControllerDelegate Section */
         func imagePickerController(picker: UIImagePickerController, didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo info: [NSObject : AnyObject]) {
              if(self.myUIImagePickerController.sourceType == UIImagePickerControllerSourceType.Camera) {
                 self.myUIImageView.image = info[UIImagePickerControllerEditedImage] as? UIImage
              } else {
                 self.myUIImageView.image = info[UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage] as? UIImage
              }
              self.dismissViewControllerAnimated(true, completion: nil)
         }

        func imagePickerControllerDidCancel(picker: UIImagePickerController) {
            self.dismissViewControllerAnimated(true, completion: nil)
        }

        /*
        You can choose to use one of the UIResponder methods:
        touchesBegan, touchesMoved, touchesEnded etc, in order to detect the touch
        on the UIImageView.
        */
        override func touchesEnded(touches: NSSet, withEvent event: UIEvent) {
            let touch: UITouch? = touches.anyObject() as? UITouch
            if (touch?.view == myUIImageView) {
                println("myUIImageView has been tapped by the user.")
                self.takingAPictureUsingTheCamera()
            }
        }

        func takingAPictureUsingTheCamera() {
            self.myUIImagePickerController = UIImagePickerController()
            self.myUIImagePickerController.delegate = self // Set the delegate
            self.myUIImagePickerController.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceType.Camera
            self.myUIImagePickerController.cameraDevice = UIImagePickerControllerCameraDevice.Front
    //        self.myUIImagePickerController.editing = true
            self.myUIImagePickerController.allowsEditing = true
            self.presentViewController(self.myUIImagePickerController, animated: true, completion: nil)
        }

        func cameraChanged(notification: NSNotification) {
             println("cameraChanged(notification: NSNotification) method called.")
             self.myUIImagePickerController.cameraViewTransform = CGAffineTransformIdentity
             if(self.myUIImagePickerController.cameraDevice == UIImagePickerControllerCameraDevice.Front){
                 self.myUIImagePickerController.cameraViewTransform = CGAffineTransformScale(self.myUIImagePickerController.cameraViewTransform, -1, 1)
             }
        }
       }// End class