Camera on Android Eclipse emulator:

Solution 1:

In the current release of the emulator (Ice Cream Sandwich, API14;Linux), web camera support is available. Google's documentation and most answers available on the web do not yet reflect this. The emulator itself does:

emulator -help
...
-fake-camera <mode>      set fake camera emulation mode
-webcam name=<name>[,dir=&lt;direction&gt;] setup web camera emulation
...
emulator -help-all

and further:

help for option -fake_camera

Use -fake-camera <mode> to control fake camera emulation. Valid values for <mode> are:

off   -> disable fake camera emulation
back  -> fake camera is facing back
front -> fake camera is facing front

help for option -webcam

-webcam off to disable web camera emulation.
-webcam list to list web cameras available for emulation.
-webcam name=[,dir=<direction>] to setup parameters for web camera emulation.
- <name> platform-independent name identifying emulated camera device.
- <direction> defines direction the camera is facing. Valid values are:
  - front -> emulate camera as facing front
  - back -> emulate camera as facing back
    
    Default direction value for emulated web camera is 'front'

Solution 2:

Afaik the emulator wont show a realtime camera regardless.

If you need a live camera-source to use in your own app for debugging, there is a sollution at http://www.tomgibara.com/android/camera-source

Updated for newer android versions: http://www.inter-fuser.com/2009/09/live-camera-preview-in-android-emulator.html

Solution 3:

Time to upgrade your ADK!

As of Android SDK version 14, the emulator supports webcams to simulate a camera:

General notes - Added webcam support to Android 4.0 or later platforms to emulate rear-facing cameras when one webcam is present, and to emulate both rear-facing and front-facing cameras when two webcams are present. Webcam suport is for Windows and Linux only. Mac support will come in a later release.

from: Android SDK Tools, SDK Tools, Revision 14

It works! I've tried this myself.