14 DAY TRIAL // Opera is experimenting with built-in support for webcams in the browser. It's only released an experimental build with the technology, but there is a definite need for this online.
More and more websites and web apps rely on user media and having the ability to record or receive data straight from a webcam, video camera, a microphone and so on would be very handy for many applications.
That's the idea behind the getUserMedia method, part of a set of APIs which is in the process of becoming the standard way websites can access local devices.
getUserMedia is part of the WebRTC set of technologies which are aimed at creating a standard platform for web real time communications, audio video and so on.
Opera is one of the big supporters of the API and now released an experimental Opera Labs release with built-in webcam support.
The latest release supports the latest version of the specification. The major change is that options are passed as JavaScript objects rather than simple strings as before.
There's still plenty of work before the API becomes standard, but browsers are already adopting it. Websites will start adopting it as well when it reaches a relatively stable state and is supported by at least several major browsers.
Regardless of the technical details, the technology certainly is promising. It could be used to enable video and audio chat in the browser without the need of any plugins.
But it's useful for something as simple as snapping a quick photo with your webcam or a phone's camera, depending on the device.
"A new Labs build has just been released which lets you take pictures with your computer's webcam and do cool stuff with them online - not only adding little flourishes like HTML5 moustaches (more on that below), but even turning your image into an Andy Warhol-style Pop Art portrait," Opera explained and also listed some web apps that already make use of the technology.