WebRTC and the User Experience – Can’t Get There Fast Enough
So, if you’re like me the idea of walking down the street while video chatting is a long stretch, but connecting with my friends and family overseas from the comfort of my couch using whichever device I happen to have at that moment – is awesome. The idea that we can connect and communicate with whoever, whenever and wherever for many of us is a given, we expect it. But the reality of using video as one of those communication channels is still more complicated. And where plug-ins have provided a means to ease the connection, certain conditions need to be met to make things work - things like an acceptable device type, the download of a plug-in (not to mention the knowledge to perform the download. Trust me, not everyone can download a plugin successfully, I know first-hand!). Welcome WebRTC!
WebRTC will take the guess work and mystery out of video communications for end-users. Applications that are used today and those in development for the future will successfully enable video communications such that users need only launch their application with a WebRTC enabled browser. For solution providers, the value of WebRTC video can be demonstrated by its sheer simplicity – both deployment and usability.
Let me share with you an experience I had recently with my daughter where WebRTC would have contributed to a simplified experience. Last month my daughter was dealing with a sinus infection and I took her to a local clinic. When we got there, we were escorted to a room with a video monitor on the wall and a couple of smaller boxes sitting next to it. We were then met by a registered nursing assistant (RNA) who asked a few questions and recorded my daughters’ responses into an iPAD. The assistant then pressed some buttons. We waited a few minutes and then a doctor appeared via remote video conferencing and began the diagnosis. It was the first time I had experienced remote healthcare services – but I have to say, it was a great. The one thing that did strike me was the complicated actions to invoke the video and the infrastructure that was required to facilitate the communication exchange. Camera, video MCUs, proprietary interfaces, it all seemed so complex. Then I thought – WebRTC and how, with WebRTC the remote service could have been provided through a simple web browser no complex proprietary video infrastructures. Then further, how we could have connected to the doctor directly from our house – no need to have dragged my daughter out when she wasn’t at her best. From my vantage point – WebRTC can’t come quickly enough.
