ZED4Android

Android integration for Stereolabs ZED stereo cameras over USB, targeting Android 12+ devices. Built on top of the UVCCamera library, adapted for high-bandwidth USB 3.0 ZED cameras.

Overview

This project lets an Android device act as a USB host for ZED cameras (ZED-M, ZED 2, ZED 2i), providing:

• Raw UVC capture at up to 3840×1080 (HD1080 side-by-side stereo) at 30 fps
• YUYV and MJPEG streaming
• Hardware-accelerated H.264/H.265 video recording
• Camera control parameters (exposure, gain, white balance, gamma, etc.)
• IMU sensor reading

Repository structure

ZED4Android/
├── libzedcamera/       # Core library: JNI/NDK bridge to libuvc/libusb, Java camera API
├── zedCameraCommon/    # Threading, encoding, and TextureView UI helpers
├── ZEDViewer/          # Sample app demonstrating live preview and recording
├── build.sh            # Build helper (setup, debug, release, NDK-only, clean)
└── build.gradle        # Root Gradle configuration

libzedcamera

Native USB camera library (produces an AAR). The C++ layer wraps:

• libuvc — UVC device control and streaming
• libusb — Low-level USB communication (Android usbfs variant)
• libjpeg-turbo 1.5.0 — JPEG decoding for MJPEG streams

Key Java classes under com.stereolabs.usb:

Class	Purpose
ZEDCamera	Main API: resolution, format, all control parameters
USBMonitor	USB device enumeration and permission management
CameraDialog	Device picker dialog
IFrameCallback	Callback to receive raw frames

zedCameraCommon

Shared Android utilities built on top of libzedcamera:

• AbstractZEDCameraHandler — Lifecycle and threading model for camera sessions
• MediaVideoEncoder / MediaSurfaceEncoder — Hardware encoder wrappers
• MediaMuxerWrapper — MP4 output
• ZEDCameraTextureView — Hardware-accelerated preview surface
• ZEDImuReader — IMU polling for ZED 2i / ZED Mini (requires v518 fw)

ZEDViewer

Sample application that opens the first detected ZED camera and shows a live preview with on-screen controls for all camera parameters, plus a record button for H.264/H.265 capture.

Requirements

Requirement	Version
Android	12+ (API 31+)
NDK	29.0.14206865 (exact)
Gradle	8.0+
Android Gradle Plugin	8.7.3
Java	17
Build toolchain	35.0.0
Target ABI	arm64-v8a, armeabi-v7a

USB host mode is required on the device. The ZED camera must be connected before or after app launch — the app listens for USB_DEVICE_ATTACHED intents.

Getting started

1. First-time setup

./build.sh setup

This wizard auto-detects your Android SDK and creates local.properties with sdk.dir and ndk.dir. If NDK 29.0.14206865 is not installed, it will tell you how to install it:

sdkmanager "ndk;29.0.14206865"

2. Build

./build.sh            # debug APK (default)
./build.sh debug      # debug APK explicitly
./build.sh release    # release APK (unsigned)
./build.sh ndk        # native libraries only, no APK
./build.sh clean      # clean all build outputs

Pass --jobs N to control NDK parallelism (default: 8):

./build.sh debug --jobs 4

Output APKs are written to:

• Debug: ZEDViewer/build/outputs/apk/debug/ZEDViewer-debug.apk
• Release: ZEDViewer/build/outputs/apk/release/ZEDViewer-release-unsigned.apk

3. Install

adb install ZEDViewer/build/outputs/apk/debug/ZEDViewer-debug.apk

Camera defaults

The ZEDViewer app opens in landscape with these defaults (configurable in MainActivity.java):

Setting	Value
Resolution	2560×720 (HD720 side-by-side)
Frame format	YUYV
Frame rate	30 fps
Bandwidth factor	1.0 (full bandwidth)

Permissions

The app requests at runtime:

• CAMERA
• RECORD_AUDIO
• WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE

USB host access is granted via a system dialog on first camera connection.

Using the library in your own app

Add the modules to your project's settings.gradle:

include ':libzedcamera', ':zedCameraCommon'
project(':libzedcamera').projectDir = new File('../ZED4Android/libzedcamera')
project(':zedCameraCommon').projectDir = new File('../ZED4Android/zedCameraCommon')

Then depend on them in your app's build.gradle:

dependencies {
    implementation project(':zedCameraCommon')
}

Subclass AbstractZEDCameraHandler (or use ZEDCameraHandler directly) to manage the camera lifecycle, and add a ZEDCameraTextureView to your layout for preview.

License

Copyright 2015–2026 Stereolabs. Licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

Third-party components under their respective licenses:

• libuvc, libusb — LGPL / BSD
• libjpeg-turbo — BSD
• rapidjson — MIT
• Serenegiant common — Apache 2.0