how to convert a CVImageBufferRef to UIImage

Question

I amy 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 work fine up until the call to CGBitmapContextCreate. it always returns a NULL pointer. so consequently none of the rest of the function works. no matter what i seem to pass it the function returns null. i have no idea why.

Answer 1

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.