1103400 - Autofocus is not available to unpriviledged / 3rd Party applications

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: DOM: Device Interfaces, defect)

Description

[pierre.slamich]

Continuous Autofocus or Manual Autofocus seems available to System Apps such as Gaia. 
However, 3rd party applications can't access the API although autofocus is a much needed feature for many use cases (barcode scanner, barcode enabled apps, 3rd party photo apps...)

It doesn't look like a privacy related issue, the only issue that I could imagine being hardware support or battery issues.

We've started today a port of an application to Firefox OS during a Mozilla sponsored hackathon and this is a showstopper for us.
All other major platform do support this feature, and it's the last thing barring us from deploying reliably on FFOS.

Comment 1

[:gerard-majax]

Mike, was this made only for certified apps for a reason?

Comment 2

[Nicolas Delebecque (:nicodel)]

In order to build photo applications with better image quality, access to this autofocus methods is a must have.
The getUserMedia does not give this kind of quality, or methods.

Comment 3

[Dridi Boukelmoune]

There's a related discussion in bug 749886.

Comment 4

[Mike Habicher [:mikeh] (high bugzilla latency)]

(In reply to Alexandre LISSY :gerard-majax from comment #1)

> Mike, was this made only for certified apps for a reason?

b2g's CameraControl is available to certified and privileged apps.

getUserMedia is available to all content, though I don't think it's currently hooked up to the auto-focus API. The simplest solution would be to have gUM set the focus mode to either 'continuous-video' or 'continuous-picture' (the former autofocuses more slowly/smoothly). Provided gUM doesn't try to call autoFocus() or takePicture(), that should be enough to keep the stream in focus.

Comment 5

[Randell Jesup [:jesup] (needinfo me)]

continuous-video, please.  For now that should do until the image capture stuff gets done.

Comment 6

[Mike Habicher [:mikeh] (high bugzilla latency)]

(In reply to Randell Jesup [:jesup] from comment #5)

> continuous-video, please.  For now that should do until the image capture
> stuff gets done.

By default, the auto-focus area will be the centre of the frame. Will that be okay?

Comment 7

[Randell Jesup [:jesup] (needinfo me)]

(In reply to Mike Habicher [:mikeh] from comment #6)
> (In reply to Randell Jesup [:jesup] from comment #5)
> 
> > continuous-video, please.  For now that should do until the image capture
> > stuff gets done.
> 
> By default, the auto-focus area will be the centre of the frame. Will that
> be okay?

Yes

Comment 8

[Mike Habicher [:mikeh] (high bugzilla latency)]

Attachment: Enable autofocus in WebRTC, v1

try: https://treeherder.mozilla.org/ui/#/jobs?repo=try&revision=1d2d7576534e

Comment 9

[Andrew Osmond [:aosmond] (he/him)]

Comment on attachment 8529217 [details] [diff] [review]
Enable autofocus in WebRTC, v1

Review of attachment 8529217 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

LGTM.

Comment 10

[Mike Habicher [:mikeh] (high bugzilla latency)]

jesup: review ping?

Comment 11

[Mike Habicher [:mikeh] (high bugzilla latency)]

Attachment: Enable autofocus in WebRTC, v2 r=aosmond,jesup

Carrying r+ on landable patch.

Comment 12

[Carsten Book [:Tomcat]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/9acf6e3a887a

Comment 13

[Carsten Book [:Tomcat]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/9acf6e3a887a

Comment 14

[Borja Salguero [:borjasalguero]]

Hi Mike! I've been trying the autofocus with Firefox OS in my Flame device (just flashed with m-c and Gaia master), and it seems not to be working (and it's working within Camera app with Camera API). Is there any specific param in order to enable the autofocus when requesting gUM? Thanks!

Comment 15

[Mike Habicher [:mikeh] (high bugzilla latency)]

Attachment: gdb bt (and bt full) of crash

Trying to reproduce on Flame, I seem to be hitting a crash after the "can I use the camera?" permission dialog.

Comment 16

[Mike Habicher [:mikeh] (high bugzilla latency)]

At some point the patch above stopped working.

Comment 17

[Mike Habicher [:mikeh] (high bugzilla latency)]

Attachment: Enable autofocus in WebRTC, v3

Borja, can you build gecko with this patch applied? I've verified that it restores autofocus functionality.

Comment 18

[Borja Salguero [:borjasalguero]]

Autofocus seems to be working properly with your patch! Now we have the other thing related with the 'distorted' image after landing https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1104913, should we file a new bug? Thanks!

Comment 19

[Mike Habicher [:mikeh] (high bugzilla latency)]

(In reply to Borja Salguero [:borjasalguero] from comment #18)

> Autofocus seems to be working properly with your patch! Now we have the
> other thing related with the 'distorted' image after landing
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1104913, should we file a new
> bug? Thanks!

Yes please, and CC myself and aosmond on it.

Comment 20

[Mike Habicher [:mikeh] (high bugzilla latency)]

Comment on attachment 8556038 [details] [diff] [review]
Enable autofocus in WebRTC, v3

Per comment 18.

Comment 21

[Andrew Osmond [:aosmond] (he/him)]

Comment on attachment 8556038 [details] [diff] [review]
Enable autofocus in WebRTC, v3

Review of attachment 8556038 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

LGTM.

Comment 22

[Mike Habicher [:mikeh] (high bugzilla latency)]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/b2g-inbound/rev/d3d2d29f0f7c

Comment 23

[Mike Habicher [:mikeh] (high bugzilla latency)]

Borja, does this affect v2.2? If so, we'll need to get b2g32+ approval for this patch as well.

Comment 24

[Mike Habicher [:mikeh] (high bugzilla latency)]

(Er, that should probably say b2g37 approval.)

Comment 25

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/d3d2d29f0f7c

Comment 26

[Borja Salguero [:borjasalguero]]

Hi Mike! This is failing as well in 2.2 (just tried and it's not working properly). Could you ask for the approval? Thanks!

Comment 27

[Mike Habicher [:mikeh] (high bugzilla latency)]

Comment on attachment 8556038 [details] [diff] [review]
Enable autofocus in WebRTC, v3

NOTE: Please see https://wiki.mozilla.org/Release_Management/B2G_Landing to better understand the B2G approval process and landings.

[Approval Request Comment]
Bug caused by (feature/regressing bug #): bug 1104913, bug 1103400
User impact if declined: autofocus doesn't work in getUserMedia()
Testing completed: manual testing
Risk to taking this patch (and alternatives if risky): minimal
String or UUID changes made by this patch: none

Comment 28

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-b2g37_v2_2/rev/f48ca0f73cdd