A simple to use but extensive camera component for Vue 3 with Typescript

Simple Vue Camera

A simple to use, but extensive, camera component for Vue 3 with Typescript support to create great camera experiences like this:

By default, this component does not render any UI elements on top of the video feed, so you can style it and make it your own.

Installation

Install Simple Vue Camera with NPM:

npm install simple-vue-camera

or, with Yarn:

yarn install simple-vue-camera

After installation, you can register the Camera component globally in main.ts:

import { createApp } from "vue";
import App from "./App.vue";
import Camera from "simple-vue-camera";


createApp(App).component("camera", Camera).mount("#app");

or, register it to a specific component:

<script lang="ts">
import { defineComponent } from "vue";
import Camera from "simple-vue-camera";

export default defineComponent({
    components: {
        Camera,
    },
});

Usage

Basics

After registering the Camera component, you can use it as follows:

<template>
    <camera :resolution="{ width: 375, height: 812 }" autoplay></camera>
</template>

Use the available slot to overlay UI on top of the video feed:

<template>
    <camera :resolution="{ width: 375, height: 812 }" autoplay>
         <button>I'm on top of the video</button>
    </camera>
</template>

Snapshots

To create screenshots of the video feed, use the snapshot function on the component reference:

<template>
    <camera :resolution="{ width: 375, height: 812 }" ref="camera" autoplay></camera>
    <button @click="snapshot">Create snapshot</button>
</template>

<script lang="ts">
import Camera from "simple-vue-camera";

export default defineComponent({
    setup() {
        // Get a reference of the component
        const camera = ref<InstanceType<typeof Camera>>();
        
        // Use camera reference to call functions
        const snapshot = async () => {
            const blob = await camera.value?.snapshot();
            
            // To show the screenshot with an image tag, create a url
            const url = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
        }
        
        return {
            camera,
            snapshot
        }
    }
});

By default, when creating a snapshot, the resolution of the snapshot will be the same as the resolution of the camera feed. To change that, pass a Resolution with the function call:

const blob = await camera.value?.snapshot({ width: 1920, height: 1080 });

Or change the image type and quality:

const blob = await camera.value?.snapshot({ width: 1920, height: 1080 }, "image/png", 0.5);

Camera

It is possible to change the camera. First request all videoinput devices:

const devices = camera.value?.devices(["videoinput"]);

Pick a device, e.g. with a dropdown, and pass the device ID to the changeCamera function:

const device = devices[0];
camera.value?.changeCamera(device.deviceId);

Note: When switching cameras, the camera component will restart and emit the loading and started events again.

Component information

Properties

Name Type Default Description
resolution Resolution 1920 x 1080 The resolution of the camera view
facingMode string environment
autoplay boolean true Determines if the camera is automatically started when mounted, when set to false, you must start the camera programmatically
constraints MediaStreamConstraints Change the default constraints

Functions

Name Parameters Description
devices kinds: MediaDeviceKind[] Returns a list of compatible devices which matches the allowed kinds
start Starts the camera
stop Stops the camera
pause Pauses the video stream
resume Resumes the video stream
changeCamera deviceID: string Changes the selected camera
snapshot resolution: Resolution, type: string, quality: number Creates a snapshot of the current video image

Events

The Camera component emits 7 different events.

<template>
    <camera
        @loading="loading"
        @started="started"
        @stopped="stopped"
        @paused="paused"
        @resumed="resumed"
        @camera-change="cameraChange"
        @snapshot="snapshot"
    ></camera>
</template>

<script lang="ts">
import Camera from "simple-vue-camera";

export default defineComponent({
    setup() {
        const loading = () => console.log("Camera is loading and will start any second");
        const started = () => console.log("Camera has started");
        const stopped = () => console.log("Camera has stopped");
        const paused = () => console.log("Video feed has paused");
        const resumed = () => console.log("Video feed has resumed");
        const cameraChange = (deviceID: string) => console.log(`Camera has been changed to ${deviceID}`);
        const snapshot = (blob: Blob) => console.log("A snapshot has been taken");
        
        return {
            loading,
            started,
            stopped,
            paused,
            resumed,
            cameraChange,
            snapshot
        }
    }
});
Name Parameters Description
loading Emitted when the camera is loading
started Emitted when the camera is loaded and is visible
stopped Emitted when the camera has stopped
paused Emitted when the video has paused
resumed Emitted when the video has resumed
camera-change deviceID: string Emitted when a camera change occurs
snapshot blob: Blob Emitted when a snapshot is taken

Licence

simple-vue-camera is available under the MIT licence. See the LICENCE for more info.

GitHub

https://github.com/BastiaanJansen/simple-vue-camera