RE: <input type=photo> etc as Capture API

Totally agree here.


-----Original Message-----
From: public-device-apis-request@w3.org [mailto:public-device-apis-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of SULLIVAN, BRYAN L (ATTCINW)
Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 08:05 AM
To: public-device-apis@w3.org
Subject: <input type=photo> etc as Capture API

Re the proposal to use something along the lines of <input type=photo>
to invoke a capture function, that is not an API, but a "user input
selection method". An API is a method via which an application invokes a
function. There should be no inherent reason that the user must be
involved in the invocation of that function (or that there is even a
user present). There may be security-related UI considerations that mean
that <input type=photo> is a usable approach to getting input to the
application, or other security-related UI functions invoked by the web
runtime e.g. per a policy framework, but those should not be the only or
mandated approaches.

We need the ability of applications to be able to interact with device
functions without explicit use-by-use involvement of the user. Mandating
user explicit user control of each API invocation will result in a
unusable user experience, and completely misses the point of defining an
API.

The BONDI Camera API provides a good model for how this should work. If
W3C chooses to define only something along the lines of a <input
type=photo> method, then I believe the market will quickly speak to the
sufficiency of that approach, and other API designs such as the BONDI
Camera API will be more successful.

Best regards,
Bryan Sullivan | AT&T

Received on Wednesday, 2 December 2009 16:14:22 UTC