Unity camera plugin save image data as bytes

Objective: convert a texture/image in Unity to byte format for serialization

In a previous article I wrote about how to setup a plugin so that the app users can take photos. Now that it is working I need to be able to save the photo and send and return the image from AWS. But before I can get to that part, I need to convert the photo in readable bytes that I can save via serialization.

To be able to convert the image that the user has taken, I need to get that image from where it is stored as the photo is taken. The path I need is already there for me, thanks to the plugin. What I need to do is convert the photo into a byte array that I can store for serialization.

The whole method above is from the plugin and I have added to it the parts I needed. In the middle I am setting the textures and the gameobject active, I am then doing the initial set up for the serialization of the photo.

I first initialise a byte array to null. If the path is not empty then I will do the following.

1. Create a texture2D by assigning the photo at the given path.
2. Encode the photo to the byte array
3. store the imgData in the byte array in the active case

That means that I can now store the photo, the next thing to do is to reverse the operation.

1. In the panel I want the photo to appear I am setting up some a new byte array and setting it to the active case byte array that was saved from the previous panel.
2. Create a new Texture2D
3. Use the LoadImage method to load an image into a texture, in this case I am using the byte array set up in step 1
4. assigning the reconstructed image as the image texture in the panel.

This results in the photo being shown in the raw image gameobject I have set up.

All this set up is necessary as I will now need to save the active case to a .dat file and then send that file to the AWS servers. Once I have done that I can then send a request and show the returned data in the app.

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