The other day ago our team, including Clayne Robison who also has a blog here on ISN, posted some API drafts to the W3C's Device API and Policy Working Group.
In a previous post I kicked off a conversation with web developers about exposing device capabilities as javascript APIs and widgets in the browser.
Here's your chance to comment and help inform our web developer enabling activities. Tell us about how having better access to the device's hardware capabilities would make your web app implementation easier. Maybe you have a use case you would like to share?
Here is a list of APIs for device capabilities we proposed.
| API | Description |
|---|---|
| Compass | Allows web apps to make use of a device's compass. The app can detect the current orientation and receive asynchronous updates when the orientation changes. |
| Power | Allows web apps to learn about the device's power state. The app can detect the current power level, time remaining and receive asynchronous updates about power level changes. |
| CPU | Allows web apps to learn about the device's CPU - number of processors, frequency, cpu usage levels. The app can detect the current cpu usage and receive asynchronous updates about cpu usage. |
| Display | Allows web apps to learn about the device's display capabilities - dots per inch, supported orientations, brightness etc. The app can detect the current orientation and brightness and receive asynchronous updates about display orientation and brightness changes. |
| Connection | Allows web apps to learn about the device's network status and ability to connect to services over the current network. The app can detect check if an URL is reachable and check the latency to and URL. The app can receive asynchronous updates about network and service changes. |
| Thermal | Allows web apps to learn about thermometers connected to the device. The app can detect the current temperature and receive asynchronous updates about temperature changes. |
| Audio | Allows web apps to learn about the device's audio capabilities. The app can determine which audio codecs are installed. The app can also learn about speakers, microphones, lines in and lines out. |
| Video | Allows web apps to learn about the device's video capabilities. The app can determine which video codecs are installed and what formats and profiles they support. The app can also determine if codecs support hardware acceleration. |
| Input | Allows web apps to learn about the device's user input capabilities. The app can determine if the device has a touch screen, if it has multi-touch support, if a physical keyboard is present or if a software keyboard is visible. The app can receive asynchronous updates about physical keyboard attach / detach. The app can receive asynchronous updates about physical pointer attach / detach. |
You can see the detailed API specs and example use cases at the WC3's site.
This is only the beginning. Stay tuned to the blog, or my tweets, for more API, widget and mashup proposals coming in the near future.