From C++ image frames to html5

Question

In my C++ application I have video image frames coming from a web camera.

I wish to send those image frames down to a HTML5 video tag element for live video playing from the camera. How can I do this?

Answer 1

For a starting point you are going to want to look into WebM and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. Both of these technologies are used as HTML5 media streams. It use to be that FireFox only supported WebM while Safari and Chrome both supported H.264. I am not sure about their current states, but you will probably have to implement both.

Your C++ will then have to implement a web server that can stream these formats on the fly. Which may require significant work. If you choose this route this Microsoft document may be of some use. Also, the WebM page has developer documentation. It is possible that H.264 must be licensed for a cost. WebM allows royalty free usage.

If I am not mistaken neither of these formats has to be completely downloaded in order to work. So you would just have to encode and flush the current frame you have over and over again.

Then as far as the video tag in HTML5 you just have to provide it the URLS your C++ server will respond to. Here is some documentation on that. Though, you may want to see if there is some service to mirror these streams as not to overload your application.

An easier way to stream your webcam could be simply to use FFMPEG.

Another usefull document can be found at: http://www.cecs.uci.edu/~papers/aspdac06/pdf/p736_7D-1.pdf

I am no expert, but I hope that at least helps you get your start.