An integrated view of Device APIs

Hi,

my name is Rob Manson and I'm one of the co-founders of
http://ARStandards.org and an Invited Expert on the W3C Points of
Interest Working Group http://www.w3.org/2010/POI/

I've recently published an outline for a web standards based model for
AR that is obviously closely related to all the work going on in the
Device API WG.  So I thought I'd post this to this list looking for
feedback and constructive criticism.

http://robman.com.au/a-web-standards-based-model-for-ar-in

Obviously some of the test elements are based on APIs that are still
forming or are not yet widely adopted.  I'm ok with that 8)

In fact I'm hoping that by raising this as a "big hairy audacious goal"
and hope we can use it as a thought experiment to validate some of the
plans for these APIs as they evolve (e.g Audio Data vs Web Audio and
WebRTC) to help you all keep AR in mind.

What I'm specifically interested in, as the subject line says, is how
these different APIs and features all work together in an integrated
way.  For example, with the orientation API some browsers return values
because the browser supports the API even if the device doesn't (e.g.
Chrome).  But other APIs/Browsers don't do this.  And across the board
there doesn't seem to be a consistent pattern of "UA support" vs "device
support" that we can introspect.  I saw this design pattern link shared
on the whatwg irc channel recently and was hoping it would also deal
with this type of pattern. http://dev.w3.org/2009/dap/design-patterns/
Perhaps there's a more up-to-date or relevant place I should be looking?

However, I think the functional needs for a web standards based AR are
very clear now and they introduce some unique and exciting new use cases
for Device API developers to take into account.

So, I'd really appreciate any comments you have...both positive and
negative.  Currently we're working on breaking each of the test elements
out into wiki pages so people can contribute to the discussion and
development of each of these.  We're also looking at moving the tests to
the Web App WG's Test Harness format so they can more easily be re-used.
And we'll also put the test onto github, etc. too.

We're also looking for some great demos to include.  We need a
multitouch friendly js game if you know of one.  And the gyro and motion
examples obviously haven't been plugged in yet.  Plus none of the
browsers in the wild really support the required audio and video APIs
yet.  So if you have any ideas for specific demos that would be perfect
for any of these slots we'd love to here about them.  

Meanwhile we're busy working on putting together a really great demo of
all the APIs integrated into a single app.

I'll look forward to hearing what you think...


roBman

Received on Thursday, 30 June 2011 00:42:57 UTC