Abstract: Disclosed is a media acquisition engine that comprises an interface engine that receives a selection from a plug-in coupled to a media client engine where a client associated with the media client engine identified as subscribing to a cloud application imaging service. The media acquisition engine further comprises a media control engine that directs, in accordance with the selection, a physical device to image a physical object and produce a media item based on the image of the physical object, the physical device being coupled to a cloud client. The media acquisition engine also comprises a media reception engine that receives the media item from the physical device, and a translation engine that encodes the media item into a data structure compatible with the cloud application imaging service. The interface engine is configured to transfer the media item to the plug-in.