Mobile phone and Labview

[blippi]

Hello

Is there any way to access the images saved in my mobile phone then open it in LabView? 

I have tried the IP webcam to directly capture the image from  mobile phone to LabView however the image quality is not good. 

I'm thinking if there is other way to get the latest image from my mobile phone then open it in LabView using a button. 

Thank you~

[Kmediavietnam]

I am using iPhone 13 pro max, can I open my saved images with labview

[RTSLVU]

So you want to use your phone camera to directly take pictures and import them directly into LabVIEW? 

Hmm.... I don't think that is going to work unless your phone "looks like" a camera that is supported by LabVIEW.

If you just want to copy or open pictures from your phone then just plug it in to USB and it should look like a flash drive. Then copying or opening a picture should be not different than opening a picture that is already on your hard drive.

[rolfk · Accepted solution]

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@RTSLVU wrote:

If you just want to copy or open pictures from your phone then just plug it in to USB and it should look like a flash drive. Then copying or opening a picture should be not different than opening a picture that is already on your hard drive.

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That unfortunately won't work. Not sure about Android. it may be possible to install something on it that will provide the memory of the Andriod device as a Flash drive, like an USB stick, but usually a phone announces itself as PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) device. Windows has a shell integration for that which makes the phone visible in Explorer but this is unfortunately a shell extension and not mapped into the Windows kernel object namespace like a memory volume. Therefore it is also not directly available within LabVIEW through any native functionality.

Access to this can be done through WIA (old legacy technology) and WPD

In Windows 10 there is also the new  Windows Photo Import API that lets you do this in a more modern way.

WIA is pretty much out of question if you want to start now as it is an old interface that Microsoft is not improving anymore at all. And its API is COM based, which is like ActiveX but without the typelibrary support so it's not possible to access it through the LabVIEW ActiveX functionality but instead you would need to write C++ code.

This codeproject article can give you some pointers about the Windows Photo Import API. It is an UWP API but should also be accessible through .Net.

[RTSLVU]

When I plug my Pixel 6 (Android 13) into a computer USB port it defaults to "no data transfer" mode for security reasons.

 

Simply go to the USB Preferences and change that to File Transfer/ Android Auto

I believe if you enable the "Developer Options" you can change that default behavior to file Transfer/Android Auto

[blippi]

Hello @RTSLVU! Thanks for the reply. 

I have tried your suggestion but it didn't work. I think I have to introduce phone into PC as a drive to be able to recognize it by Labview 🙂 

[RTSLVU]

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@blippi wrote:

Hello @RTSLVU! Thanks for the reply. 

I have tried your suggestion but it didn't work. I think I have to introduce phone into PC as a drive to be able to recognize it by Labview 🙂 

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Um... Yeah, that's basically what I was saying. If you change the default behaviour of Android from "Charge only" to "File Transfer / Android Auto" when plugged into USB your phone will appear as a USB drive to Windows. 

Here's how my phone appears in Windows:

Default when USB is plugged in

Default

After selecting "File Transfer / Android Auto" 

File Transfer / Android Auto

Notice the Phone's internal memory looks like a USB drive to Windows.

[blippi]

ah Yes Sir, but you won't be able to select that as path in LabView. 

Thank you Sir~