@monkvision/camera-web

@monkvision/camera-web

This package provides tools used to handle the Camera in MonkJs web projects in React. It exports a component called Camera, that lets you display a camera preview on your app as well as an HUD on top of it, and provides methods to take pictures, compress images, etc.

Installing

To install the package, you can run the following command :

yarn add @monkvision/camera-web

If you are using TypeScript, this package comes with its type definitions integrated, so you don't need to install anything else!

Camera component

Camera Preview

The main component exported by this package is called Camera. When placed in a screen this component displays a preview of the user's camera video stream. This component is a smart React wrapper for core JavaScript API functionnalities that let you access the user camera :

• Automatic handling of Camera permissions : if you place this component in your app, the user will automatically be asked permission for camera access
• Error handling and retry-on-error utilities
• React memoization of elements
• Render optimizations

// This super simple bit of code will let you display a camera preview in your app.
import { Camera } from '@monkvision/camera-web';

function MyCameraPreview() {
  return <Camera />;
}

Camera resolution

The resolution quality of the pictures taken by the Camera component is configurable by passing it as a prop to the Camera component :

import { CameraResolution } from '@monkvision/types';
import { Camera } from '@monkvision/camera-web';

function MyCameraPreview() {
  return <Camera resolution={CameraResolution.HD_720P} />;
}

Notes :

• This option does not affect the resolution of the Camera preview : the preview will always use the highest resolution available on the current device.
• If the specified resolution is not equal to the one used by the device's native camera, the pictures taken will be scaled to fit the requirements.
• The resolutions available in the CameraResolution enum are all in the 16:9 format.
• If the aspect ratio of the specified resolution differs from the one of the device's camera, pictures taken will always have the same aspect ratio as the native camera one, and will be scaled in a way to make sure that neither the width, nor the height of the output picture will exceed the dimensions of the specified resolution.

Compression options

When pictures are taken by the camera, they are compressed and encoded. The compression format and quality can be configured using props on the camera component in the following ways :

import { Camera } from '@monkvision/camera-web';
import { CompressionFormat } from '@monkvision/types';

function MyCameraPreview() {
  return <Camera format={CompressionFormat.JPEG} quality={0.4} />;
}

For more details on the compression options, see the API section below.

Camera HUD

In order to control the Camera (take pictures etc.), an HUD component can be passed as a prop to the Camera component. An HUD component is a component that takes a camera handle (an object used to control the camera) as well as a camera preview element as props and that will display the preview with some additional head-up display on top of it. When a HUD component is passed to the Camera component, the Camera will place it in the tree, and will pass him down the camera handle and preview already configured.

It is definitely possible to write your own custom Camera HUD component, but if you just need a very basic Camera HUD, this package exports one already : the SimpleCameraHUD component. It will display a button to take the pictures, error messages with proper labels in case there are errors when fetching the camera video stream, and a retry button to try to fetch the camera stream again if there was an error.

To use this HUD, simply pass the component to the HUDComponent prop of the Camera component :

import { Camera, SimpleCameraHUD } from '@monkvision/camera-web';

function MyCameraPreviewWithHUD() {
  return <Camera HUDComponent={SimpleCameraHUD} />;
}

The text displayed by this component (error messages, retry button label...) is by default in english. If you want to customize the display language, you can specify the fixed language you want to use by using the lang prop of the component like this :

import { Camera, SimpleCameraHUD } from '@monkvision/camera-web';

function MyCameraPreviewWithGermanHUD() {
  return <Camera HUDComponent={SimpleCameraHUD} hudProps={{ lang: 'fr' }} />;
}

The currently supported languages are :

• English : 'en' (default)
• French : 'fr'
• German : 'de'
• Dutch : 'nl'

Creating a Custom HUD

In order to implement custom Camera HUD, you simply need to create a component that will take a camera handle and a camera preview as props. Additional props can be passed to this HUD component using the hudProps prop of the Camera component :

import { Camera, CameraHUDProps } from '@monkvision/camera-web';

interface MyCustomCameraHUD extends CameraHUDProps {
  message: string;
}

function MyCustomCameraHUD({ handle, cameraPreview, message }: MyCustomCameraHUD) {
  return (
    <div>
      {cameraPreview}
      <button onClick={handle.takePicture}>Take Picture</button>
      <div>{message}</div>
    </div>
  );
}

function MyCameraPreviewWithCustomHUD() {
  return (
    <Camera
      HUDComponent={MyCustomCameraHUD}
      hudProps={{ message: 'Hello World!' }}
    />
  );
}

The complete specification of the camera handle is available in the API section below.

Camera Events

In order to add side effects when some things happen in the Camera, you can specify event handlers callbacks in the Camera component props. For now the supported events available are :

• onPictureTaken: (picture: MonkPicture) => void : Callback called when the user takes a picture

API

Camera component

Description

Main component exported by this package, displays a Camera preview and the given HUD on top of it.

Props

Prop	Type	Description	Required	Default Value
resolution	CameraResolution	Resolution of the pictures taken by the camera. This does not affect the resolution of the Camera preview.		CameraResolution.UHD_4K
format	CompressionFormat	The compression format used to compress images taken by the camera.		CompressionFormat.JPEG
quality	number	The image quality when using a compression format that supports lossy compression. From 0 (lowest quality) to 1 (best quality).		0.6
HUDComponent	CameraHUDComponent	The camera HUD component to display on top of the camera preview.
hudProps	T	Additional props passed down to the Camera HUD component.
onPictureTaken	(picture: MonkPicture) => void	Callback called when a picture has been taken by the user.
monitoring	CameraMonitoringConfig	Extra options that can be passed to configure how the monitoring is handled in the component.

Camera Handle interface

Description

Object passed to Camera HUD components that is used to control the camera

Properties

Prop	Type	Description
takePicture	() => Promise	A function that you can call to ask the camera to take a picture.
error	UserMediaError | null	The error details if there has been an error when fetching the camera stream.
isLoading	boolean	Boolean indicating if the camera preview is loading.
retry	() => void	A function to retry the camera stream fetching in case of error.
dimensions	PixelDimensions | null	The Camera stream dimensions (null if there is no stream).
previewDimensions	PixelDimensions | null	The effective video dimensions of the Camera stream on the client screen (null if there is no stream).