Articles and Lifehacks
Many people are interested in how to connect a webcam to their phone. In fact, a similar operation can be performed on a smartphone running on any operating system.
The main thing is to choose software that will expand the possibilities of communication via the Internet. All such programs are focused on synchronizing the device and computer via a USB cable or Bluetooth.
This uses the gadget's camera. Accordingly, the image quality depends on it.
The software is developed for Linux and Windows. The application works perfectly together with flash services and programs VirtualDub, Yawcam, Yahoo Messenger.
You can also connect your phone and computer via Bluetooth, after pairing the equipment first.
Usually, few people are interested in connecting a camera to Android, because Android devices already have a built-in one, or even two. But there are situations when it fails (it breaks or becomes very dirty with dust so that the device cannot see anything). If you suddenly become the owner of a broken camera, I will explain how to solve this problem.
What you need is a USB connector or OTG connection support on your phone or tablet. Connection is not difficult using the USB protocol and the availability of drivers for installation.
If you do not have the necessary drivers, then the solution to this problem is to download software from official sources. But you may not need drivers since the Android system can perform the settings without third-party help.
If suddenly you were unable to connect to the Android camera, then I advise you to download a program called Stick Mount from Google Play. Root rights may be required for this application to function correctly. Stick Mount helps your device automatically recognize an external camera via USB and displays a list of all found devices.
It turns out that thanks to this program you can connect up to several devices at the same time, which will be very useful for some users.
Now, using a USB webcam, you can shoot video and take pictures. If the tablet does not want to play files made by the camera, then you need to change the shooting format in the settings, you need to specify MPEG4 or AAC.
If you are the happy owner of a video camera that can connect wirelessly via Wi-Fi, then I will explain how you can connect using the example of the DSC-QX100, in my opinion, this is the best video camera for Android with wireless pairing, since the connection is via Wi-Fi this is its direct purpose.
Here are step-by-step instructions on how to connect a Wi-Fi camera to Android:
By connecting such an external lens, you can shoot great videos and take great photos that the built-in camera cannot take.
You have opened a page with this topic, which means you are looking for an answer to how to connect a camera to Android. Let’s skip the lengthy discussions about the reasons why this might be needed and go directly to the essence of the issue.
Most Android devices (at least gadgets starting from version 3.1) are equipped with USB On-To-Go technology, the essence of which is the ability to provide power to external media that were connected via micro USB.
To connect a camera of this type, a special adapter with a full USB connector on one end and a mini-USB connector on the other, which should come with the device:
If its presence is not provided by the manufacturer, then the absence of such an adapter in our case is not a serious obstacle, since purchasing it in communication stores is not difficult at all, especially since it is useful when connecting joysticks, mice, keyboards, card readers and other peripherals .
So what we have to do:
If the connection is successful, then, using any file manager, you can view the active connections in the corresponding folder.
This is the simplest option for connecting the camera to Android, for example, for communicating on Skype. However, in this case, everything does not always work out as we would like. One of the most common reasons is the lack of necessary drivers, which, however, can be installed by downloading them from the official website of the smartphone (tablet) manufacturer.
If installing drivers does not solve the problem, this can only mean one thing - this Android device does not support connecting third-party gadgets. In this case, you can resort to using a special application that is designed to connect peripherals.
For example, application CameraFi is an excellent tool for pairing a mobile gadget on Android OS with any USB camera. This is especially true even in cases where the smartphone is equipped with its own camera (or even two). And this is understandable, because the capabilities of the built-in camera are often inferior in many ways to their budget-class digital counterpart.
You can find out more about the functionality of the utility and the compatibility of connected devices on the manufacturer's website or Google Play, we will now tell you how to work with the program.
For work CameraFi we will need an OTG adapter (see above), download and install the application from any specified source.
So, after installing the application, we connect the Android device and the camera 
Now we launch the utility and for it to work correctly we give the necessary permissions (button “ OK"). In chapter " Settings» You can select quality and resolution settings for both photos and videos (they depend on the capabilities of the camera). The application interface is simple and intuitive, so there should be no problems.
The utility also allows you to record audio and video streams, set the desired prefixes in the name of any file, and then view the finished photographs or videos.
In addition, CameraFi will be an excellent assistant for connecting an action camera, microscope or endoscope, video recorder, etc.
Another tool that I would like to talk about is StickMount– an application that, via a USB connection, recognizes an external video camera (flash drive, mouse, etc.) automatically, and then provides a list of all available connections. The utility also allows you to simultaneously connect several video devices.
After installing the program, connect the camera and launch Root access. Now you need to agree to the proposed conditions, after which the camera should be determined and will be ready for use.
*Note:
Some devices do not have a function that allows you to work via the OTG protocol. But this does not mean that users who have such gadgets will not be able to connect a web camera to them. In such cases (and not only) wireless technologies can be successfully applied.
To do this, a smartphone/tablet and camera that support Wi-Fi technology, a stable Internet connection (local or global) and an application that converts the stream from the periphery.
You also need to equip your Android with a special video player capable of streaming video files in flv format (for example, VPlayer).
Once in the settings menu after connecting, the first step is to set the resolution and picture quality and activate the motion detector, which has a sensitivity from zero to 250 units. In addition, for our own convenience, we remember the location where the archive was recorded.
IP Webcam is available in paid and free versions. The PRO version provides many tools for customizing the camera interface: displaying the record button, volume control, selecting their location, size, etc.
For more details on how to connect Android as a web camera, watch the video:
Few users are interested in how to connect an additional camera to an Android device, so such devices already have their own, and not even the only one. But this happens when the camera breaks down (it becomes dirty with dust or wears out). If suddenly you have such a case, we will tell you how to get out of this situation.
If the necessary drivers are not available, then the way out of this situation is to download the required program from the official websites of the manufacturer. But, you can do without drivers, since the Android system can make the necessary settings itself.
What to do with a broken phone, for example, if its monitor is broken? Expensive repairs, or buy a new one! But don’t rush to make hasty decisions - your device can still do a good job, because you can use your phone as a webcam! Moreover, this can be done on a smartphone with almost any operating system installed on it, the main thing is to know what software to install - and in the end you will get a cool device for communicating via the Internet with your friends and family - after all, not everyone has a laptop with a built-in webcam or a separate camera for computer. But every second person uses an Android phone or tablet, so this note about a smartphone as a webcam will be very helpful.
The work of all applications that allow you to implement this task comes down to the fact that you synchronize your device via a USB cable or Bluetooth, depending on the application, and the computer uses the camera built into your phone or smartphone as a webcam. The quality of the image depends both on the camera itself and on the program. As a rule, paid software is slightly better than free versions.
The Android platform has almost completely taken over the market of mobile operating systems in recent years, so I’ll start with it. A free application called USB Webcam for Android will help you connect your phone as a webcam. You can download it from the Play Market.
The specifics of the program are as follows: it consists of two parts - the first is installed on the phone, the second on the computer (there is a version for Windows and Linux.). Works with Facebook, VKontakte and other flash services, and works well with Yawcam, VirtualDub and Yahoo Messenger.
So, install this application on your smartphone, after which in the main menu of the gadget, go to the “Settings > For Developers” section and check the “USB Debugging” box. We also turn off WiFi on it.
Next, we launch the application we downloaded to use the phone as a webcam and connect it with a USB cable to the computer. After this, you will need to download another program and install it on the computer itself. It's called USB WebCam PC Host - unfortunately, the developer's official website is unavailable for some reason, so you can download it from.
We install this program, then go to the folder “C:/Program Files (x86)/USBWebcam” and look for the file “ usbwebcam.bat". We launch and see this picture:
This means everything is up and running and ready to use your phone as a camera. Now we launch some program on the computer through which we will communicate, for example Skype.
Open the settings and select “GWebcamVideo” as the webcam, that is, our phone. The image transmitted by the phone's camera will appear.
Unfortunately, based on the experience of using it on some phones and firmware, it was noticed that instead of the image from the camera, a green background appears on Skype. Well, this is a program glitch, we can only hope that the developers will fix this problem.
But if you couldn’t launch a webcam on your phone with this program, then let’s try another one - DroidCam. It is also freely available in the market. Download and install.
After launch, this is what the mobile phone screen will look like - the server will start with the IP assigned to the phone on the local network (if WiFi is enabled) and our port “4747”.
After this, we will make several configurations in the same “usbwebcam.bat” file, which needs to be opened in regular Notepad. In it you will see the following lines:
adb -d forward tcp:8080 tcp:8080
adb -d forward tcp:8081 tcp:8081
pause
We delete them and write the following:
adb -d forward tcp:4747 tcp:4747
pause
then save the file and run it.
If you want, you can connect the phone to your router so that the PC and Android are on the same local network, and select the “WiFi” connection item - then you will also need to enter the IP address of the smartphone on the local network in the corresponding line - it is indicated in the program on the phone .
Another option is to connect your PC and phone via Bluetooth. To do this, you first need to pair the devices (how to do this will be discussed in a separate article).
After this, you can open Skype again and check if your phone is in the list of available webcams.
To turn your Apple phone into a webcam, there is an excellent universal program PocketCam. Unfortunately, it is paid, but it is cheap and if you regularly communicate online, it is worth purchasing. Moreover, the development of this company has an Android version, as well as applications for receiving video from a computer to a phone running Windows Phone and Windows Mobile. For clarity, I provide the official video manual from the developer.
Nokia's Symbian has already sunk into oblivion - support and release of new versions of this operating system have already ceased, but at one time these phones flooded the entire market, so it is likely that you also have some Finnish model lying around that can still serve us.
The first of the programs that works with Sym is a free application for S60 2 and 3 - . There is a Java version with a .jar extension and an EXE version. Installation and connection requires additional description:
Now in the program you will have an image transmitted by the camera from your phone.
Another program that works not only with the S60, but also with Windows Mobile - another grandfather of mobile OSes, as well as with UIQ 3.0 and iOS - Mobiola Web Camera. It is paid, but the transmission quality is much better than the previous ones. There is also a Lite version, but its connection time is limited to 5 minutes. To use your phone as a web camera, you need to install one of the versions of the program for a specific mobile OS. Supports both WiFi and USB connections.
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