How to interact with a Users webcam & inbuilt microphone using Ruby / Rails?

Question

Hi All,

Not sure how to frame this one, so here goes...

I have a need to develop an application which allows my boss to post a series of questions that will be answered by various consultants around the world, each question will have a time limit in which it can be answered e.g. 3 minutes.

Here is the problem, the users answering the questions must do so via their webcam & microphone built into their computer. The recording will need to be done directly through the web-app (no pop-ups, or external apps e.g. skype) & I need to limit the recording time allowed for each question.

I have no idea how to do this using Ruby / Rails or where to even start, been doing some research but not found much so far.

Does anyone have any recommendations / ideas of how this can be done?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The only technology I know of that can do this on the client is Flash. Or perhaps Java.

Ruby and/or Rails can't help you here as they are entirely server-side technologies.

Answer 2

http://dev.w3.org/html5/html-device/ might be a start, but will still take a couple of months/years/decades.