title: Use microphone in multiple app simultaneously in Android
body: <p>We have an Android device on which we would like to use the <code>microphone</code> in 2 app simultaneously.</p>
  
  <p>In fact, we have a vocal command service that is running in the background (we are using the <code>CMU Sphinx</code> library). The problem is when we start a video recorder (camera application), we can't start the recording as 2 applications can't access to the microphone at the same time.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Error</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>08-20 12:20:14.601: I/MediaRecorderJNI(7261): prepare: surface=0x59590668
  08-20 12:20:15.916: E/MediaRecorder(7261): start failed: -38
  08-20 12:20:15.916: E/com.example.CamcorderView(7261): Failed to start recorder.
  08-20 12:20:15.916: E/com.example.CamcorderView(7261): java.lang.IllegalStateException
  08-20 12:20:15.916: E/com.example.CamcorderView(7261):     at android.media.MediaRecorder.start(Native Method)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Note that the camera works well when the vocal service is off.</p>
  
  <p>Moreover, I precise that I've already read this thread : </p>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4669047/android-accessing-the-microphone-simultaniously-recognizerintent-own-app">Android: Accessing the microphone simultaniously (RecognizerIntent + own app)</a></p>
  
  <p>but the difference here is that we have a hand on the O/S and the kernel. So we can apply patch if needed. </p>
  
  <p>Is it an <code>SDK/OS/Kernel</code> limitation? Is there any workaround ?</p>