title: Android image processing get image data quick
body: <p>I am creating an Android app to do some image processing techniques with the camera and it needs to be fast. This is the pseudo-code of how the entire system works:</p>
  
  <pre><code>1. loop while not finished
     1.1 get image frame
     1.2 process image for object detection
  2. end loop
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I actually have questions on the basics of the <code>Camera</code> class:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Is previewing the perceived image from the camera faster than no previews at all? The former means using <code>SurfaceView</code> to preview the image.</li>
  <li>Let's say from the <code>takePicture()</code> method, can the image data array be obtained without the previews?</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>My real question is, what is the best way to obtain the image data (say, <code>byte[]</code> array) quickly and iteratively after processing the image (as stated on top)?</p>
  
  <p>I planned to use <code>takePicture()</code> method to get the image data, but I need your opinion if this is the only way or if there other better ways.</p>