Strange app permission/behavior

[robbo323]

Newest update to Ring Guard requested access to camera!? And now you can hear the camera clicking when you make volume changes! Is this thing taking pictures!? And sending them somewhere!? The app is supposed to simply prevent unintended ring volume changes from bumping the volume rocker. No apparent need for camera function. Anyone know what's up with this?

 

[x475aws]

Why RingGuard needs camera permission

There were some bugs involving RingGuard's interaction with the camera. E.g. if RingGuard confirm dialog came up during video recording, due to a volume change, the video would be aborted. And on some phones (HTC?), user interactions with the still camera cause RingGuard dialog to come up (because of volume change under the covers?).

So, how would you fix these bugs? My idea was to suppress RingGuard confirm dialog when the camera is in use. How do you determine if the camera is in use? AFAIK, there's no way for an app to identify which app is currently displayed. But since only one app can use the camera at a time, RingGuard can try to access the camera, and treat an error as an indication that the camera is in use. It needs camera permission to access the camera, even though it doesn't take any pictures. All it does is access the camera, and then release it. Unfortunately, on the Moto Droid, camera access does cause some soft clicking. Annoying, but not enough to abandon the fix. I tried it once on an HTC Incredible and didn't hear anything. You can clear the "Camera Option" checkbox on the RingGuard preferences screen, and then it won't try to access the camera, it'll work like it did before.