Dynamically Select Which Source to Transmit through Skype

Question

Hi All!

My group and I working on a capstone project for our undergraduate degree; the project is a Windows Store App (C#) that interfaces with Skype and uses multiple audio/video sources on a single client (basically a webcam plugged in through USB). The goal is to use this application to dynamically select which audio/video source is transmitted to the Skype Call. 

 

Since Skype got rid of their API for URI commands instead, we are unsure how to select with source to transmit through our program, let alone if it is possible.

 

If anyone has any information or insight on this topic, any help is greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks,

 

Erik 

Answer 1

I'm not sure what you mean by interfaces with Skype here. Are you trying to use a Skype API to talk to the Skype server? Or are you trying to communicate with the Skype client app on the local system?

Either way, for help with Skype API (if any) you'll need to ask on Skype forums. There is no way for apps to communicate directly with other local apps. They can launch fire-and-forget URIs, but there is no guarantee that the user will have chosen any specific app, and I believe you are correct that Skype does not publish protocols.

--Rob

Answer 2

Thanks for your reply Rob, I'm not sure what I mean either haha I'm very new to this, but the idea is to have a Windows Store app that lists the video sources, and when a specific video source or webcam is selected in the application, Skype uses that as the video signal to transmit.

So right now in Skype, you can switch between video sources by clicking on your own video stream during a conversation. The hope is that this application will be able to control that more effectively when using multiple video sources. 

The Skype forums are pretty limited (if they aren't I haven't found anything applicable) since they no longer support the API. Is this just completely not possible to do?

Answer 3

That doesn't sound like something possible. Windows Store apps cannot automate other Windows Store apps.

The only channel that could work would be for Skype to register and listen to a protocol for control, which I don't believe they do.

--Rob

Answer 4

Thanks again Rob for the quick reply, much appreciated.

Ok I've sent a message to Skype to see if they can help at all or provide us with any guidance. We were thinking that a potential work around could be to program the application to switch default devices, with hopes that this would switch the device in Skype as well without communicating directly to Skype. Do you, or does anybody know how to make a certain audio or video device the default device? We've been looking through the API with no luck so far.

Is it possible to switch default audio/video devices dynamically in a program? 

Erik

Answer 5

No, Windows Store apps are not able to change system settings.