PROTOTYPETheme: Doorway Brass · an always-open video doorway between two rooms — a door you can see and hear through, in place of walking down the hall. This page prototypes the pipe honestly on one device.
HONESTY LABEL — read this first. Single-device demonstration. Both panels are this device's camera — the far panel arrives through a real WebRTC connection, looped back on this device. The two-room version is a setup recipe, not a server.
There is no second location, no stock footage, and no simulated person on this page. The near panel is this device's direct preview; the far panel is that same camera after it has genuinely travelled through two WebRTC peer connections (offer / answer, ICE, DTLS encryption, jitter buffer) and come back.
ON-AIR — camera and microphone are LIVE on this device
Near End — This Room (this device)
State: CLOSED — camera off
The doorway is closed. Nothing is captured while it is closed — the camera and microphone stay off until the button below the panels is pressed.
Near preview is always silent on this panel (it is a confidence monitor, not a speaker).
Far End — Through the Doorway
State: CLOSED — no connection
No feed. When the doorway opens, this panel shows what arrives from the second peer connection — on this one device, that is the same camera, returned through the real WebRTC pipe. In the two-room recipe below, this is where the other room would appear.
Far-end audio: MUTED — feedback guard ON (microphone and speakers share one device here; playing the far end aloud would howl). Unmute only with headphones plugged in.
One tap opens it (your browser will ask for camera + microphone permission). One tap closes it — tracks stop, peers close, panels go dark.
Pipe: idle · peer 1 (sender) — not created · peer 2 (receiver) — not created · ICE — idle · Nothing has been captured, recorded, or sent anywhere.
PRIVACY NOTE. Camera is off until the button is pressed — this page never opens it on load. While the doorway is live, the red ON-AIR indicator above stays visible the whole time; if it is not showing, the doorway is not live. One tap on CLOSE THE DOORWAY stops the camera and microphone immediately. Nothing is recorded, nothing is stored, and nothing leaves this device: the connection on this page loops between two peers inside this one browser tab.
Setup Recipe — The Real Two-Room Version
This prototype proves the pipe on one device. The genuine article is two devices, one in each room's doorway. No server and no account are required by the recipe itself — pick one of the two carrying options in step 3.
Steps
Pick the two doorways. Choose the pair of rooms the doorway joins (for example, a workspace and a living area). Both ends get a device — a doorway with only one end is just a camera.
Prepare a spare tablet or phone for the far end. Charge it, factory-reset it if it is a retired device, and sign in only with a household-only account. Label the device and its charger with the room name.
Choose how the call is carried — either option is honest:
Option A — an ordinary video-call app: install a mainstream video-call app on both devices, sign both into the household account, and place a call between them. Simplest path; the app provider's own privacy terms apply to that call.
Option B — a self-hosted page (later build): the same two-peer page pattern as this prototype, served on the home network with a tiny local signalling step so the two devices can find each other. Nothing about that version needs a cloud server; it is a later build, not something this prototype pretends to be.
Mount the far device in or beside the door frame at standing eye height, angled slightly down, powered from a wall adapter (an always-open doorway cannot run on battery). Do the same for the near device if it is also a fixed spare; a laptop or tablet on a stand at the desk works for the near end.
Start the call, then set the etiquette (below) before walking away: far-end speaker volume low, microphone state agreed, privacy shutter fitted.
Test the doorway as a doorway: stand in each room, speak at normal volume, wave, and walk through the frame. Adjust angle and volume from what you actually see and hear, not from the spec sheet.
Framing tips
Frame the doorway itself, not a whole room: the lens should cover the door opening and a step either side, so a person arriving is seen arriving — that is what makes it read as a door instead of a surveillance view.
Keep the camera out of direct backlight (never point it at a bright window or it silhouettes everyone) and at eye height; a high corner mount feels like security footage, eye height feels like a person standing there.
Leave a visible margin: if people must cross the whole room to be seen, the mount is wrong.
Always-on etiquette — the rules that make an open doorway welcome
Mute state is the default courtesy: keep the far end's microphone muted (or its speaker down) until someone steps to the doorway to talk, exactly as this prototype starts the far end MUTED. An open mic into another room is eavesdropping; an open doorway with a known mute state is furniture.
Privacy shutter, physical, both ends: fit a sliding lens cover or a simple flap of card on a hinge over each camera. Shutter closed = doorway closed, readable at a glance from across the room — no one should have to trust a software light.
A visible live indicator in each room (the app's own indicator, or a small lamp on the same switched outlet as the device) whenever the doorway is open.
Household agreement first: everyone who lives with the doorway knows where it is, when it is open, and how to close it — and anyone can close it, at either end, without asking. A doorway one person cannot shut does not get installed.
Set open hours: plug the far device into a switched outlet or timer so the doorway closes for the night by hardware, not by remembering.