Installation

Using Maven is recommended, but manual installation is also possible.

Maven Project

The picam library is available from the Maven Central repository, you can add it to your Maven project by adding a new dependency:

<dependency>
    <groupId>uk.co.caprica</groupId>
    <artifactId>picam</artifactId>
    <version>2.0.2</version>
</dependency>

Version 2.x of picam does not require any further library dependencies.

Companion Native Library

Version 2.x of picam uses a pure JNI implementation rather than the JNA implementation used with version 1.x. This new JNI implementation comes with a native library file that must be installed somewhere on your Pi so your Java application may use it.

The native library project is at GitHub, and you can compile and install that library manually if you so wish.

However, it is much easier to have the picam library automatically install the pre-built native library that is bundled with the picam jar file. For example:

import uk.co.caprica.picam.NativeLibraryException;

import static uk.co.caprica.picam.PicamNativeLibrary.installTempLibrary;

public class MyCameraApplication {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws NativeLibraryException {
        installTempLibrary();
        // ... your application code ...
    }
}

The static installTempLibrary statically imported function takes care of extracting the native library from the picam jar file, copying that library file to a temporary directory, and loading the native library into your Java application.

The native library file will be automatically deleted from the temporary directory when your Java application terminates.

An alternate installLibrary(String) method is also provided if you want to specify the directory that the native library should be installed into rather than using the temporary directory.

This alternate method can also take an overwrite parameter that you can use to control whether or not any pre-existing native library (of the same version number) will be overwritten.

If you use this alternate method, the native library will not be automatically deleted when your Java application terminates.

Manual Installation

If you are not using Maven for your project, you can install the required jar file manually.

You will need the following jar:

• picam-{picamVersion}.jar

If you want to manually build and install the companion native library, then you must explicitly load the native library when your Java application starts:

public class MyCameraApplication {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.load("/your/installation-directory/picam-${picamVersion}.so");
        // ... your application code ...
    }
}