Hi I have been looking everywhere for some simple code that does not show any webcam picture on the program's GUI but just takes the picture and saves discreetly in the background. You may ask why I need to do this? Well it's for use in my encryption programs for random key generation as my plan is to take a hash from the saved picture and use that as a random "key" then to delete the picture afterwards. I am sorry I don't have any code to show of my own as I don't want to be perceived as 'lazy' by some I just want some short as possible code to do this task but as I am not used in this area of vb.net where you handle external devices like webcams so I don't quite know how to interpret this code to shorten it down. The code below is of a program that has a device selection in the GUI which the user can select the webcam to use, it has a screen in which the live camera stream can be seen,has a start/stop button to stop/stop the camera live stream and finally has a 'save as' button where the user chooses to save the picture. Below is the form layout, Thank you.
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What I have tried:
Public Class Form1
Const WM_CAP As Short = &H400S
Const WM_CAP_DRIVER_CONNECT As Integer = WM_CAP + 10
Const WM_CAP_DRIVER_DISCONNECT As Integer = WM_CAP + 11
Const WM_CAP_EDIT_COPY As Integer = WM_CAP + 30
Const WM_CAP_SET_PREVIEW As Integer = WM_CAP + 50
Const WM_CAP_SET_PREVIEWRATE As Integer = WM_CAP + 52
Const WM_CAP_SET_SCALE As Integer = WM_CAP + 53
Const WS_CHILD As Integer = &H40000000
Const WS_VISIBLE As Integer = &H10000000
Const SWP_NOMOVE As Short = &H2S
Const SWP_NOSIZE As Short = 1
Const SWP_NOZORDER As Short = &H4S
Const HWND_BOTTOM As Short = 1
Dim iDevice As Integer = 0
Dim hHwnd As Integer
Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Integer, ByVal wMsg As Integer, ByVal wParam As Integer, ByVal lParam As Object) As Integer
Declare Function SetWindowPos Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowPos" (ByVal hwnd As Integer, ByVal hWndInsertAfter As Integer, ByVal x As Integer, ByVal y As Integer, ByVal cx As Integer, ByVal cy As Integer, ByVal wFlags As Integer) As Integer
Declare Function DestroyWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hndw As Integer) As Boolean
Declare Function capCreateCaptureWindowA Lib "avicap32.dll" (ByVal lpszWindowName As String, ByVal dwStyle As Integer, ByVal x As Integer, ByVal y As Integer, ByVal nWidth As Integer, ByVal nHeight As Short, ByVal hWndParent As Integer, ByVal nID As Integer) As Integer
Declare Function capGetDriverDescriptionA Lib "avicap32.dll" (ByVal wDriver As Short, ByVal lpszName As String, ByVal cbName As Integer, ByVal lpszVer As String, ByVal cbVer As Integer) As Boolean
Private Sub LoadDeviceList()
Dim strName As String = Space(100)
Dim strVer As String = Space(100)
Dim bReturn As Boolean
Dim x As Integer = 0
Do
bReturn = capGetDriverDescriptionA(x, strName, 100, strVer, 100)
If bReturn Then lstDevices.Items.Add(strName.Trim)
x += 1
Loop Until bReturn = False
End Sub
Private Sub OpenPreviewWindow()
Dim iHeight As Integer = picCapture.Height
Dim iWidth As Integer = picCapture.Width
hHwnd = capCreateCaptureWindowA(iDevice, WS_VISIBLE Or WS_CHILD, 0, 0, 640, 480, picCapture.Handle.ToInt32, 0)
If SendMessage(hHwnd, WM_CAP_DRIVER_CONNECT, iDevice, 0) Then
SendMessage(hHwnd, WM_CAP_SET_SCALE, True, 0)
SendMessage(hHwnd, WM_CAP_SET_PREVIEWRATE, 66, 0)
SendMessage(hHwnd, WM_CAP_SET_PREVIEW, True, 0)
SetWindowPos(hHwnd, HWND_BOTTOM, 0, 0, picCapture.Width, picCapture.Height, SWP_NOMOVE Or SWP_NOZORDER)
btnSave.Enabled = True
btnStop.Enabled = True
btnStart.Enabled = False
Else
DestroyWindow(hHwnd)
btnSave.Enabled = False
End If
End Sub
Private Sub btnSave_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnSave.Click
Dim data As IDataObject
Dim bmap As Image
SendMessage(hHwnd, WM_CAP_EDIT_COPY, 0, 0)
data = Clipboard.GetDataObject()
If data.GetDataPresent(GetType(System.Drawing.Bitmap)) Then
bmap = CType(data.GetData(GetType(System.Drawing.Bitmap)), Image)
picCapture.Image = bmap
ClosePreviewWindow()
btnSave.Enabled = False
btnStop.Enabled = False
btnStart.Enabled = True
If sfdImage.ShowDialog = DialogResult.OK Then
bmap.Save(sfdImage.FileName, Imaging.ImageFormat.Bmp)
End If
End If
End Sub
Private Sub ClosePreviewWindow()
SendMessage(hHwnd, WM_CAP_DRIVER_DISCONNECT, iDevice, 0)
DestroyWindow(hHwnd)
End Sub
Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
LoadDeviceList()
End Sub
Private Sub btnStart_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnStart.Click
OpenPreviewWindow()
btnStart.Enabled = False
btnStop.Enabled = True
End Sub
Private Sub btnStop_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnStop.Click
ClosePreviewWindow()
btnStart.Enabled = True
btnStop.Enabled = False
End Sub
End Class