Is it possible to take a photo in the background in the android application?

Question

Android

Is it possible to take a photo in the background in an android application without calling a dialog with the finder?
That is, according to the plan, the application should work and take a photo once a minute and send it to the server, while the user should not know about it.
The application will be used on one particular device, so hacks with android itself will also work.

Answer 1

It won't work without hacks. Just checked, without showing the preview, the takePicture() method of the Camera class is not called.

Answer 2

There is a Mobile Hidden Camera app. It itself takes a photo every n seconds. So, when you minimize this application, it continues to take pictures. But all photos taken after folding are identical to the last photo taken before folding. Android 4.0, Nexus S.