Submitted by Syd Nicholson on Thu, 02/08/2007 - 00:00
Forums
IceBreak

Does anybody know how to integrate images (moving?) from Web Cams into HTML pages served by IceBreak

Many thanks
Syd

John Foldager

Fri, 02/09/2007 - 00:00

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Hi Syd,


Originally Posted by Syd Nicholson: 
"Does anybody know how to integrate images (moving?) from Web Cams into HTML pages served by IceBreak"

It can be done in several ways. First of all you'll have to decide which of the following you will use:

A1) Webcam on the same computer as the browser that should capture the video.
A2) Webcam on the network which can be accessed by "Server i" and it's the server that captures the images/video and send it to the browser.
A3) Webcam on the network which has it's own HTTP server integrated from which you can serve the HTML to the clients.

You'll have to check at least these options for the client side:

B1) Use the ActiveX/JavaApplet/Flash component provided with the network-based webcam (for me ActiveX is not an option because it is not cross-platform).
B2) Create your own ActiveX/JavaApplet/Flash that communicates directly with the webcam or through a server (can be IceBreak, Java Servlet etc.).

In considering the optimal and feasible solution you'll also have to decide if the communication is going through a firewall etc.

Years ago I did a test project in Java that captured information and a still-image from a USB-attached webcam on a PC. I can probably find this code somewhere if you're interested. A better solution would probably be searching the forums at java.sun.com for "webcam" and see more up-to-date solutions.

If your requirement is to do it all in IceBreak then you'll have to use some low-level API's to get the same results... I have no idea at this point how to do that. You might consult Niels on this to see if he knows how to.
Best regards,

John Foldager
www.izone.dk
www.icebreakforum.org

Thanks for your reply John.

This is a question asked by a client, but, I don't know how they handle their current web cams (server, PC attached, etc.). It is not urgent and I won't find out any more details for at least another month.

I am not too worried about the cross platform issues. In my experience most clients have a specific platform and their requirements are a one off, as long as the solution suits their platform - thats is all I need. I think they use Internet Explorer, so a flash plug in or ActiveX should be OK.

Regards
Syd