

Show HN: Say Cheese - a cross-browser compatible webcam API - FuzzyDunlop
http://leemachin.github.com/say-cheese/

======
FuzzyDunlop
Author here. I started this thing off as a bit of a jumble of incongruous
features (take pictures, take pictures of just parts of the image, etc. etc.),
and have since been whittling it down to two core components: getting a webcam
feed up and running; and giving you the option to capture images from it.

Instead of adding more features before 'shipping', I probably deleted a load
instead. Didn't need 'em.

~~~
lessnonymous
Does it work with mobile browsers?

~~~
FuzzyDunlop
I've not tested it (due to not having a phone with a front-facing camera), but
I'm not confident there's support for it yet.

------
sergiotapia
No demo in sight, would love to see this working in a small demo. :)

Edit: Tried this but it isn't working: <http://jsfiddle.net/fPTTz/5/>

~~~
glennos
The link is for the demo, but the webcam won't show unless you allow it in the
browser. I'm using Chrome and a yellow permissions bar pops down for me.

------
pamelafox
Does anybody know what the stats are for how many users generally have a
webcam either on their computer or attached? It seems the only way to know is
to actually use their camera either via HTML5 or Flash, or to look at user
agent and infer from the OS, but that wouldn't tell you about attached
webcams.

It would be a useful stat to know before adding webcam-related functionality
into our site.

~~~
malandrew
If someone doesn't have a camera on their laptop/desktop, I would still bet on
them having them on phone if they have a smart phone. I hope iOS supports
getUserMedia() soon.

On top of that, I think cameras have been standard on laptops for several
years now. That fact coupled with the fact that most computers don't get more
than 4-6 years of use leads me to believe that for many demographics the
percent of attached cameras is probably pretty high. People with desktops are
less likely to have attached cameras, but desktops largely went out of fashion
with consumers a few years ago when the laptop became powerful enough for most
consumer uses.

All in all, I'd say that cameras are probably on the computers and phones of
well more than 50% of the population that uses the internet daily. The only
exception would probably be work desktop machines.

------
acgourley
Does anyone know the timelines for non-flash cross browser webcam access?

~~~
DanBlake
90% penetration will not be for at least 4-5 years, if that.

Thank mostly IE for that, But also Safari and a host of mobile browsers.

~~~
malandrew
Why 4-5 years? That seems like an awfully long time for an API that is pretty
well defined. If it takes that long it can only be because Apple is
deliberately avoiding building support for it.

~~~
DanBlake
Because enterprise. Go look at IE8 stats right now. Keep in mind IE10 does not
support this, so ask yourself when nobody will even be left on IE10.

------
inouemak
The Author wrote a blog post for sample usage with Sinatra and Mustache

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4822993>

------
ChrisNorstrom
Hmmmm could you do the same for microphones?

