The project is led by Mozilla, and is being developed by the W3C WebRTC working group. PeerConnection, getUserMedia, and DataChannels are all chiming in as well to make sure that the new feature runs both seamlessly and securely. PeerConnection enables security for your calls, getUserMedia lets developers (with your permission) capture data from your video camera/microphone, and DataChannels combined with audio/video chat can send data to any web browser it has access to. All audio/video communcations are encrypted for safe and private calls.

If you’re a Firefox Aurora user, you can test drive the WebRTC features right now. Mozilla believes that implementing this new feature in its web browser is very innovative. If you come across a news story, sale, or any web page that interests you, you can easily drag and drop the link into a video call that you’re in. Mozilla also believes that this could change the way that online customer service works. Currently there are customer service web chats available with many services, but in the future, customer service reps could video chat with you and show you a demonstration of their products.

Mozilla will be demonstrating its WebRTC features at Mobile World Congress this week, and we’ll get you more scoop on that. Mozilla is also planning on showing a demonstration of its Firefox operating system that its hoping will make it a major competitor in the mobile market place. You can also check out some of the other innovative technologies introduced at Mobile World Congress here.

[via Mozilla]

So far, WebRTC has generally been mentioned in relation to in-browser video conferencing, with the potential to bypass standalone apps. However, the technology also offers the potential for using video in a single direction: in this case, with the getUserMedia feature accessing the webcam and microphone and using them for motion-tracking.

The result – for Cirque du Soleil at least – is a combination of HTML, CSS, and HTML5 that works on all browsers that support the WebRTC standard; Google would unsurprisingly like to point out that such a list includes its own Chrome. It also works on mobile devices, such as phones and tablets, tapping into the accelerometer for navigation.

There are more technical details here, and a video demo of it all in action below. If you’re not enamored of Cirque du Soleil, it’s likely that the same technology will make a reappearance soon for more immersive gaming and other applications, something which could make Google’s Chromebooks all the more interesting to the mass market.

Among those demands are an adherence to “stateless interactions” – i.e. where there’s no obligation from any user’s system to remember the state of another – along with a dynamic reaction to network conditions and interoperability with existing standards. It must also support multiple codecs in case of future changes.

Unfortunately, Microsoft points out, WebRTC in its current form doesn’t meet with all those demands. There is, for instance, no ubiquitous deployability, with the standard today showing “no signs of offering real world interoperability with existing VoIP phones, and mobile phones, from behind firewalls and across routers and instead focuses on video communication between web browsers under ideal conditions.”

It also builds on the legacy of SIP, Microsoft argues, which doesn’t make for a stateless system. Applications would be forced “to resort to trial-and-error and/or browser-specific code” Microsoft says.

The company’s solution is CU-RTC-Web, freshly submitted to the W3 organization, adding a real-time, peer-to-peer transport layer, and building on the existing W3C getUserMedia API – something that Microsoft has already been playing with for integrating video authoring and voice commands to HTML5 apps.

Part of Microsoft’s motivation may well be Outlook.com, a preview of which recently launched to replace Hotmail. Although not currently functional, part of the Outlook.com promise is in-browser Skype support with no local install required.

Plans to integrate WebRTC into Chrome were revealed last summer, with the tech being an open-source way to call upon standardized voice/video communication without stepping outside of the browser. Eventually, it could mean apps like Google Talk – which is being migrated over to use WebRTC – could challenge rivals like Skype from any standards-compliant browser, rather than demanding a separate app be installed.

That would have a significant impact on mobile devices and web-appliances like Chromebooks, which could get onboard with audio and video communication without waiting on developers releasing native apps. As we suggested last year, a Google-led iMessage rival could end up blowing Apple out of the water in IM and comms.

Meanwhile, WebRTC also has potential for cloud-based streaming services such as OnLive gaming, another element tipped for inclusion in a future Chrome build. What remains to be seen is when WebRTC support gets baked into Gmail and Google+, which each have A/V services that could make significant use of it.

The update is set to land in Q1 2012 and will bring with it not only support for gamepads, but a couple other tricks as well. The update will allow Chrome to support cameras and microphones without needing plug-ins for them to operate. Kinlan apparently hinted that the games for Chrome might also get augmented reality and player tracking.

Other plans for the update include support for webRTC, which is an open source application that supprots video chart. That would allow the browser to support video chat with no plug in needed. The tech might also allow Google to add a browser gaming service along the lines of On-Live. That would be interesting for many fans.

[via Next-gen]

News that Chrome was also in line was confirmed late last week, with Google software engineer Henrik Andreasson announcing its inclusion to browser developers:

“Our goal is to enable Chrome with Real-Time Communications (RTC) capabilities via simple Javascript APIs. We are working hard to provide full RTC support in Chrome all the way from WebKit down to the native audio and video parts. When we are done, any web developer shall be able to create RTC applications, like the Google Talk client in Gmail, without using any plugins but only WebRTC components that runs in the sandbox.” Henrik Andreasson, Google

Google used technologies acquired from GIPS in 2010 to build WebRTC, and is looking to build the system into a set of open standards for other browser producers to adopt. For users, there’d be no plugins or apps to install, only real-time voice and video communications supported from within webpages and web-aware apps.

As we suggested recently, with a little work Google could implement WebRTC – along with other systems – in its Google Talk platform, and blow Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime out of the water.

[via CNET]

The concept behind iMessage is straightforward: rather than route text, audio and photo conversations via SMS and MMS, if iOS 5 figures you’re talking to another iMessage user, they’re fired off over your data connection instead. It’s the iChat app for iOS we’ve been waiting for, only with zero hurdles to usability – you don’t have to tell your iPhone if you’re wanting to use SMS or data, since it figures it out itself.

Google has an IM system in the shape of Google Talk and, in the latest version of Android, Gingerbread 2.3.4, it has voice and video support too. The particular strength of GTalk, however, is in its cross-platform support. Gmail users can log into GTalk in the browser, while PC users have the choice of a standalone chat client too. That standalone client supports file transfers, as well, and a few years back Google added group chat support. Problem is, it doesn’t consistently offer the same features across the board.

Most of the challenge is joining the dots, not inking them in the first place. But Google’s real hidden weapon is in WebRTC, the open-source project it kicked off after acquiring GIPS last year. Using a combination of straightforward HTML and JavaScript, WebRTC puts video conferencing into the browser rather than demanding a specific client-side app.

Although in reasonably early stages of development today, eventually WebRTC will offer a far more open, easily-accessed way to hold voice and video calls than the popular existing systems like Skype and, more recently, Apple’s FaceTime. Google has already confirmed that its GTalk team is working on shifting the platform from iSAC to WebRTC; the search giant is also working with Mozilla, the IETF and W3C to cement WebRTC into a set of open standards which developers can use at their whim.

As those pieces slot into place, Google will have a system that works on Android phones, Android tablets, Chrome OS based Chromebooks, in the browser – whether you’re using Chrome, or any standards-compliant alternative – and anywhere else developers decide to leverage it. GIPS had already cooked up iOS and Windows Mobile versions prior to being acquired: if Google can add the same functionality to its existing Google Talk for BlackBerry, iOS and other platforms, that’s a foot not just on Android devices but across the board in a way that neither iMessage nor BBM offer.

WebRTC will undoubtedly take time to polish. Nonetheless, Google isn’t far from a mobile/tablet/desktop inter-connected iMessage alternative in GTalk. Carriers should probably get used to the idea of some sleepless nights to come, as two of the biggest smartphone platforms in the world get very serious about doing messaging on their own terms.

Still, given Android already has Google Talk, the company’s IM client that allows for cross-communication between Android handsets and tablets, GMail in the browser and the PC GTalk app, it’s not hard to imagine a boosted version updated to better challenge iMessage and BBM. Currently GTalk supports text-based conversations, but it would require photo and perhaps video/audio support, along with group chat, if it wanted to legitimately counter BBM.

That’s no great step, however, and of course Google also has live two-way video chat support in GTalk as well (as long as you have a very recent device). That, with the established presence on the desktop and Google’s investment in browser-based real-time video calling using WebRTC, could be enough to swing things back into the search giant’s favor, even if it makes it to market after BBM and iMessage have already set out their stalls.

[via Android Community]

Given Google’s prioritization of the browser, that ambition is understandable. Chromebooks are basically browser-based ultraportables, and so leveraging WebRTC would instantly make them compatible with voice and video chat services without demanding local software be installed. Meanwhile, Android and other mobile platforms will eventually be able to use WebRTC, since the system is built on GIPS technology Google acquired back in 2010. GIPS had already built VideoEngine versions for Android, iOS and Windows Mobile, opening the door to a cross-device standard that, unlike Skype or FaceTime, doesn’t use proprietary technology.

It’s all early days, so don’t expect any miracles quite yet, but Google is working with Mozilla as well as the IETF and W3C to build a set of open standards with WebRTC at their core. Meanwhile, the Google Talk team is working on moving the software from iSAC to WebRTC, though there’s no timeline for that transition to be complete.

Ericsson has already been experimenting with WebRTC, and you can see the fruits of their labors in the video below.

[via Twitter]