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How to convert a CVImageBufferRef to UIImage

Asked 2010-06-30T18:31:25.687
25

I am trying to capture video from a camera. i have gotten the captureOutput:didOutputSampleBuffer: callback to trigger and it gives me a sample buffer that i then convert to a CVImageBufferRef. i then attempt to convert that image to a UIImage that i can then view in my app.

- (void)captureOutput:(AVCaptureOutput *)captureOutput didOutputSampleBuffer:(CMSampleBufferRef)sampleBuffer fromConnection:(AVCaptureConnection *)connection
{
    CVImageBufferRef imageBuffer = CMSampleBufferGetImageBuffer(sampleBuffer); 
    /*Lock the image buffer*/
    CVPixelBufferLockBaseAddress(imageBuffer,0); 
    /*Get information about the image*/
    uint8_t *baseAddress = (uint8_t *)CVPixelBufferGetBaseAddress(imageBuffer); 
    size_t bytesPerRow = CVPixelBufferGetBytesPerRow(imageBuffer); 
    size_t width = CVPixelBufferGetWidth(imageBuffer); 
    size_t height = CVPixelBufferGetHeight(imageBuffer); 

    /*We unlock the  image buffer*/
    CVPixelBufferUnlockBaseAddress(imageBuffer,0);

    /*Create a CGImageRef from the CVImageBufferRef*/
    CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB(); 
    CGContextRef newContext = CGBitmapContextCreate(baseAddress, width, height, 8, bytesPerRow, colorSpace, kCGBitmapByteOrder32Little | kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedFirst); 
    CGImageRef newImage = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(newContext); 

    /*We release some components*/
    CGContextRelease(newContext); 
     CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);

     /*We display the result on the custom layer*/
    /*self.customLayer.contents = (id) newImage;*/

    /*We display the result on the image view (We need to change the orientation of the image so that the video is displayed correctly)*/
    UIImage *image= [UIImage imageWithCGImage:newImage scale:1.0 orientation:UIImageOrientationRight];
    self.capturedView.image = image;

    /*We relase the CGImageRef*/
    CGImageRelease(newImage);
}

the code seems to wor

objective-c iphone uiimage
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2 Answers

20

The way that you are passing on the baseAddress presumes that the image data is in the form

ACCC

( where C is some color component, R || G || B ).

If you've set up your AVCaptureSession to capture the video frames in native format, more than likely you're getting the video data back in planar YUV420 format. (see: link text ) In order to do what you're attempting to do here, probably the easiest thing to do would be specify that you want the video frames captured in kCVPixelFormatType_32RGBA . Apple recommends that you capture the video frames in kCVPixelFormatType_32BGRA if you capture it in non-planar format at all, the reasoning for which is not stated, but I can reasonably assume is due to performance considerations.

Caveat: I've not done this, and am assuming that accessing the CVPixelBufferRef contents like this is a reasonable way to build the image. I can't vouch for this actually working, but I /can/ tell you that the way you are doing things right now reliably will not work due to the pixel format that you are (probably) capturing the video frames as.

answered 2010-07-04T16:12:27.157
2

Benjamin Loulier wrote a really good post on outputting a CVImageBufferRef under the consideration of speed with multiple approaches.

You can also find a working example on github ;)

How about back in time? ;) Here you go: http://web.archive.org/web/20140426162537/http://www.benjaminloulier.com/posts/ios4-and-direct-access-to-the-camera

answered 2012-08-24T09:56:33.020

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