3.1 Taking Member Photos using MS Edge without going through the VIC.exe
Problem
Can I use a Microsoft browser for RecTrac, take pictures and still use a VIC Service installation or do I have to go with the VIC.exe if using Microsoft?
Solution
You can use MS Edge as your browser for this.
Microsoft Edge supports the HTML5 getUserMedia API, so you are able to capture photos within RecTrac 3.1 via Edge without having to use the VIC.exe executable. The following caveats need to be considered:
1. In the Windows Privacy Settings for Camera access, you need to turn on/enable the option to Let apps use my camera and then turn on/enable Microsoft Edge under the Choose apps that can use your camera menu.
2. When connected to the RecTrac application via an unsecured http connection, the user will be required to acknowledge Edge access to the camera each and every time the API is accessed, so basically there will be an extra mouse-click each time you want to capture a photo. MS Edge will present the question at the bottom of the browser: Let <domainname> use your webcam? The user clicks Yes and then the camera begins streaming video to RecTrac. If you are using a secured https connection (RECOMMENDED!), then that question will come up once per RecTrac session only and not each time a new photo is being captured.