Detecting changes in a camera’s activity and status in a Flex VideoDisplay control

In a previous example, “Displaying a webcam’s video in a Flex VideoDisplay control”, we saw how to connect to a user’s webcam, if they have one installed.

In the following example we see how to listen for the Camera object’s activity event and status event, using some good ol’ ActionScript.

Full code after the jump.

This example won’t be very interesting unless you actually have a webcam installed.

View MXML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- http://blog.flexexamples.com/2008/01/22/detecting-changes-in-a-cameras-activity-and-status-in-a-flex-videodisplay-control/ -->
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
        layout="horizontal"
        verticalAlign="middle"
        backgroundColor="white">

    <mx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
            import mx.controls.Alert;
            import mx.utils.StringUtil;

            private function videoDisplay_creationComplete():void {
                var camera:Camera = Camera.getCamera();
                if (camera) {
                    videoDisplay.attachCamera(camera);
                    camera.addEventListener(ActivityEvent.ACTIVITY, camera_activity);
                    camera.addEventListener(StatusEvent.STATUS, camera_status);
                } else {
                    Alert.show("You don't seem to have a camera.");
                }
            }

            private function camera_activity(evt:ActivityEvent):void {
                var str:String = "[{0}] activating:{1}\\n";
                textArea.text += StringUtil.substitute(str,
                                    evt.type,
                                    evt.activating);
            }

            private function camera_status(evt:StatusEvent):void {
                var str:String = "[{0}] code:'{1}', level:'{2}'\\n";
                textArea.text += StringUtil.substitute(str,
                                    evt.type,
                                    evt.code,
                                    evt.level);
                switch (evt.code) {
                    case "Camera.Muted":
                        Alert.show("User denied access to camera.");
                        break;
                    case "Camera.Unmuted":
                        Alert.show("User allowed access to camera.");
                        break;
                }
            }
        ]]>
    </mx:Script>

    <mx:VideoDisplay id="videoDisplay"
            creationComplete="videoDisplay_creationComplete();"
            width="160"
            height="120" />

    <mx:TextArea id="textArea"
            editable="false"
            width="100%"
            height="{videoDisplay.height}"
            wordWrap="false"
            verticalScrollPolicy="on" />

</mx:Application>

View source is enabled in the following example.

If you want to display the Adobe Flash Player Settings dialog box again, you can use the following ActionScript:

Security.showSettings(SecurityPanel.PRIVACY);

You can also allow users to go to different tabs in the Settings dialog by by using something similar to the following snippet:

<mx:ApplicationControlBar dock="true">
    <mx:Button label="Camera"
            click="Security.showSettings(SecurityPanel.CAMERA);" />
    <mx:Button label="Privacy"
            click="Security.showSettings(SecurityPanel.PRIVACY);" />
</mx:ApplicationControlBar>