Microsoft offers devs guidance on how to customize the capture experience

Oct 25, 2011 13:24 GMT  ·  By

Cameras are going to play a bigger role in Windows 8 than in any other Windows release, especially because they’re a standard feature of next-generation form factors.

Of course, users will still be able to connect traditional cameras to their Windows 8 machine, just as they did with Windows 7 or its predecessors.

What’s interesting is that with the advent of the next major iteration of Windows, developers will have the chance to kick up a notch the capture experience, enhancing their products.

This can be done through a Windows 8 Metro device app for the camera, according to the software giant.

Those devs looking to start building their first Metro device application for camera in Windows 8 can access a free whitepaper offered by the Redmond company. The “Developing Metro style Device Apps for Cameras” documentation can be downloaded from the Windows Dev Center.

“This paper provides information about developing a Metro style device app to customize the capture experience and provide additional features for a specific camera,” the Redmond company said.

“The intended audience is independent hardware vendors (IHVs) and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) who are interested in providing a Metro style device app to differentiate their attached or embedded camera. Some sections of this paper assume that the reader is familiar with JavaScript, C++, and C#.”

Obviously, devs will get to use JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS3 for Metro device apps for cameras, but they can always opt to use technologies such as C++ or C# with XAML.

Developers leveraging JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS3 can create their projects with the help of the Windows Software Development Kit for Metro style Apps. Of course, Windows Runtime APIs are available to simplify their work.

“Touch interaction support is built-in. You can design your Metro style device app for touch, and Windows gives you keyboard, mouse, and graphical scaling support for free,” the company added.

Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102 Milestone 3 (M3) is available for download here.