[whatwg] Device Element

[Rob Evans]

Having a look over the draft, I notice a comment about the device element,
"RS232 is only included below to give an idea of where we could go with
this. Should we instead just make this only useful for audiovisual streams?
Unless there are compelling reasons, we probably should not be this generic.
So far, the reasons aren't that compelling."

 

I have a usage case that would benefit from other types of device access
other than audiovisual:

 

We currently run a news service that requires users log on to access our
data and market reports (practically all major banking institutions in the
world use us). I could envisage either a thumb-print reader allowing us to
authenticate the user biometrically, or providing each user with a USB thumb
stick that contains a unique identifier of some sort that when read using
the device element could be used to authenticate them like a sort-of
"web-dongle".

 

One of our big issues is plagiarism and password sharing amongst our
clients. This type of access would allow us to lock down secure content
without having to install applications on the client computers which as you
can imagine, is a no-no when dealing with banks!

 

Comments anyone?

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