The groups responsible for standardizing the language used to build Web sites have begun tackling technology to provide a direct interface to Webcams. The World Wide Web Consortium has begun work on the HTML Device addition to the Hypertext Markup Language specification. “The device element represents a device selector, to allow the user to give the page access to a device, for example a video camera,” according to a December 11 draft of the specification.
if there was a standard HW interface for all the cameras . (there exist webcams not working with standard USB video class)
That is completely irrelevant for what is being accomplished here. OS’s with support for cameras already have an API for applications to interface with the hardware.
Would this support be client or server side? Because if we’re talking server side I guess there would have to be some way to couple the devices to http so there would still have to be a backend for the device in the webserver.
Well, the actual site is very thin on details ( http://dev.w3.org/html5/html-device/ )… I would venture a guess that this would be a way for Javascript to access the device. If the device data needs to be sent to the sever, that can be handled quietly in the background with AJAX… no need to specify a HTTP device communications protocol.
Can you stream from javascript using http? The network needs of streaming apps are very different than what are normally required for web apps. Come to think of it, how is this handled for <video>? I bet in that case js doesn’t get to touch it either and there is some special stuff happening. I hope it doesn’t require the downloading of the entire video.
Come to think of it, how is this handled for ? I bet in that case js doesn’t get to touch it either and there is some special stuff happening. I hope it doesn’t require the downloading of the entire video.
If you look at the spec posted above, this is intended to support video conferencing.
You can do pretty much anything you want in javascript, if the browser exposes that functionality. HTML5 is there to expose this in standard fashion.
Streaming over http is easy – just keep the connection (of infinite length) open. Or just skip the http altogether.
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[BigBrother] is watching you [/BigBrother]
if there was a standard HW interface for all the cameras . (there exist webcams not working with standard USB video class)
That is completely irrelevant for what is being accomplished here. OS’s with support for cameras already have an API for applications to interface with the hardware.
Would this support be client or server side? Because if we’re talking server side I guess there would have to be some way to couple the devices to http so there would still have to be a backend for the device in the webserver.
Well, the actual site is very thin on details ( http://dev.w3.org/html5/html-device/ )… I would venture a guess that this would be a way for Javascript to access the device. If the device data needs to be sent to the sever, that can be handled quietly in the background with AJAX… no need to specify a HTTP device communications protocol.
Can you stream from javascript using http? The network needs of streaming apps are very different than what are normally required for web apps. Come to think of it, how is this handled for <video>? I bet in that case js doesn’t get to touch it either and there is some special stuff happening. I hope it doesn’t require the downloading of the entire video.
Edited 2009-12-15 21:22 UTC
If you look at the spec posted above, this is intended to support video conferencing.
You can do pretty much anything you want in javascript, if the browser exposes that functionality. HTML5 is there to expose this in standard fashion.
Streaming over http is easy – just keep the connection (of infinite length) open. Or just skip the http altogether.
This is purely intended for client side use.
No doubt it may be extended into server-side in something like Helma (a Javascript Web engine), but thats only because this spec is an IDL for JS.
one less reason to use Flash, maybe some day we can bury it
This plus WebGL will pave the way for Flash-less online augmented reality!
This is good news,
If the HTML standard keeps improving like this,
hopefully some day we won’t need plugins like flash and java anymore. Sounds good to me.
java is a lot more than a browser plugin.
It is, off course, more then a plugin only, but that doesn’t change the fact it is a plugin too, sitting there loaded into my browser.
Java applets are being used, like flash and silverlight, so add features not supported by plain html + javascript.