Intent to Prototype: WebXR Raw Camera Access

[Piotr Bialecki]

Contact emails bia...@chromium.org Explainer https://github.com/bialpio/webxr-raw-camera-access/blob/master/explainer.md Design docs/spec https://github.com/bialpio/webxr-raw-camera-access/blob/master/explainer.md TAG review TAG review was not requested yet - we are still at the prototyping stage, exploring the best way to implement the feature & expose it to the web. Summary The feature enables applications authored against WebXR Device API to access pose-synchronized camera image textures in the contexts that also allow interacting with other AR features provided by WebXR. Motivation Currently, to protect user privacy, WebXR Device API does not provide a way to grant raw camera access to the sites. Additionally, alternative ways for sites to obtain raw camera access (getUserMedia() web API) are not going to provide the application with pose-synchronized camera images. For some scenarios, this limitation may pose a barrier to adoption of WebXR Device API. Providing applications with access to camera images should allow them to experiment more rapidly with additional AR-related features that may be possible to implement purely in JavaScript. Risks

Interoperability and Compatibility There have been initial discussions happening in Immersive Web Community Group about providing camera access to the applications. We are still early in the process and would like to have a working prototype & know its limitations before engaging the CG fully. Firefox: No public signals Edge: No public signals Safari: No public signals Web developers: No signals Ergonomics This feature is an extension of WebXR Device API. The feature will require applications to use WebGL to access the data returned by the API. Activation The feature is usable as-is, although it will be more accessible to developers if used through libraries like three.js, <model-viewer>, A-Frame, etc.

Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS, Android, and Android WebView)? No This will be supported on platforms where Chrome supports AR. Currently, this is only Android. WebView support is planned. There are no technical restrictions specific to this API preventing it from being implemented on other platforms. The specification itself will be implemented in Blink for all platforms, but the spec text leaves room for the UAs to signal that a particular API depends on the device support. Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests? No N/A Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status https://chromestatus.com/feature/5759984304390144

This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status.