In the Android world, things change very quickly. The folks at Google are always creating new features and new tools. The old tools stop working and the old instructions no longer apply. If you see something on your screen that doesn't look like familiar, don't despair. It might be something very new, or you might have reached a corner of the software that is a dark corner.
Android, based on Linux, uses a virtual device to run the apps, and offers support for 3G, WiFi, GPS, touch screens, and any other common-place component on high-end mobile phones today. Visit Android SDK site and Download Android SDK Latest Version!
In the Android world, things change very quickly. The folks at Google are always creating new features and new tools. The old tools stop working and the old instructions no longer apply. If you see something on your screen that doesn't look like familiar, don't despair. It might be something very new, or you might have reached a corner of the software that is a dark corner.
Android, based on Linux, uses a virtual device to run the apps, and offers support for 3G, WiFi, GPS, touch screens, and any other common-place component on high-end mobile phones today. Visit Android SDK site and Download Android SDK Latest Version!
You download Android's SDK and Android Studio in one big gulp. Here's how:
- Visit Android's Developer website.The page has a big button for downloading Android Studio. The Android Studio download includes the much-needed Android SDK.
The web page may not look the same, but you'll still see an Android Studio download. - Click the Download button on the web page.
- Agree to all the legal mumbo-jumbo.
- Save the download to your local hard drive.If you run Windows, the downloaded file is probably an
.exe
file. If you have a Mac, the downloaded file is probably a.dmg
file. Of course, there are no guarantees. The downloaded file might be a.zip
archive or maybe some other exotic kind of archive file.
For more information on things like.exe
and.dmg
, refer to the sidebar entitled 'Those pesky filename extensions.' And, if you need help with.zip
files, see the earlier sidebar 'Compressed archive files.'
What happens next depends on your computer's operating system.
- In Windows: Double-click the
.exe
file's icon.
When you double-click the .exe
file's icon, a wizard guides you through the installation.
- On a Mac: Double-click the
.dmg
file's icon.
When you double-click the .dmg
file's icon, you see an Android Studio icon (also known as an Android Studio.app icon). Drag the Android Studio icon to your Applications
folder.
Want a Quick Start link? Use this tutorial: 'OpenCV for Android SDK'.
Sdk Tools For Android Studio
What you should know
There are two major types of OpenCV4Android beginners, first group is new to Android, and the second – to OpenCV. We'll try to provide some advice for both:
- If you're an experienced OpenCV adept and you want to start with Android, you should remember, that Android is not desktop OS, you should prepare yourself for mobile development. We're not aiming to teach you all about Android, so in case you're not really familiar with the platform, you may consider consulting the official website for developers, or some short introduction like this one. At the same time, we've prepared a special 'Introduction into Android Development' tutorial and a set of samples helping you to become familiar with Android specifics. What's important, is that you can reuse your C++ desktop code. It's even recommended to develop and debug your algorithms in familiar environment, using your PC and favourite IDE. Of course you have to keep efficiency in mind, but please avoid premature optimization. OpenCV was designed to be high-performance, so measure your actual performance before you start to worry. Keep in mind, that majority of modern mobile devices is surprisingly powerful.
- If you're a confident Android developer, but you need some information on OpenCV, please have a look at the documentation and use the user-support resources if needed: forum and issue tracker. And do not forget to look into tutorials, they will help you to quickly understand what you can easily accomplish with OpenCV. Computer Vision field has a long history, but some problems are still unsolved. If you're not sure if OpenCV could help you with your task, just ask your question at our forum, people there like to solve quirky problems.
How to start
OpenCv4Android is available as a SDK with a set of samples and Javadoc documentation for OpenCV Java API. It also contains prebuilt apk-files, which you can run on your device instantly. There are three OpenCV tutorials aimed to help you start:
- 'Introduction into Android Development' would be useful for the absolute beginner, because it shows you how to setup Android development environment.
- Detailed instructions on SDK are available in the 'OpenCV for Android SDK' tutorial. You'll see a couple of sample applications, which you can use as a basis for your own developments.
- 'Android development with OpenCV' shows you how to add OpenCV functionality into your Android application. For those who want to reuse their C++ code, we've created a special section: 'Native/C++'. We propose this way for the professional developers, since native development is a bit harder, but gives you larger opportunities. Face detection sample shows an example of wrapping a C++ class to the Java.
If you need additional information on OpenCV usage models, you can check this page.
Online resources
User Communities:
- OpenCV Q&A forum: http://answers.opencv.org. Use it as a major resource for Computer Vision and OpenCV consultancy.
- Read-only OpenCV4Android group: https://groups.google.com/group/android-opencv. This group was replaced by the Q&A forum from above, but its archive is still available.
OpenCV4Android documentation:
- Tutorials: 'Introduction into Android Development', 'OpenCV for Android SDK', 'Android development with OpenCV'.
- Documentation on 'OpenCV Manager': please check these slides.
- Javadoc html-files are included into the distribution and available online.
Information on OpenCV:
- Official documentation for the latest public release: http://docs.opencv.org.
- Daily documentation build: http://docs.opencv.org/master/.
- And please pay special attention to the tutorials and C++ cheatsheet!
3rd-party samples and tutorials:
- Open Source Google Glass samples by Jared Burrows and Andre Compagno
- Eyes detection and tracking on Android sample by Roman Hošek (the 'face-detection' sample extension)
Download Java Sdk For Android Studio
Providing feedback
- You know, we love contributions, especially pull requests on the GitHub!
- If you think you've found a new bug, let's double-check it:
- Please check that you use the latest version of OpenCV4Android.
- Please check the open 'Android issues' on the tracker.
- Ask OpenCV community about your problem.
- If you're still suspecting that you're probably the first human who met such problem, let's file a bug! Instructions are here.
Contacts
- Use OpenCV Q&A forum for most of your questions. And please help others, this is good for your karma!
- Email: android at opencv dot org. Again, please use the group first of all, we do not provide private consultancy!
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenCV4Android.