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Webcam-virtual-background

This is a modified version of great and instructive Linux-Fake-Background-Webcam

What i have changed

  • [NEW] You can use a looping video as background replacement ("-t video" option);
  • Only background replacement, no foreground object placement, is not my goal and LESS WORK for CPU;
  • the mask is not updated every frame (-m option), more performance and no motion blur flickering;
  • adjust some parameters (dilation and blur);
  • add more backgrounds [37] (thanks to unplash and their contributors);

How change background

If you want to change the background above in the middle of streaming, replace it

cp fakecam/backgrounds/unplash-backgrounds/<image_filename>.jpg fakecam/background.jpg

and press CTRL-C

Install

Install all prerequisite:

apt-get install python3.8  v4l2loopback-dkms

also python3.7 is ok

If you have multiple python installation in the system you can use use virtualenv to activate the correct python version

 sudo apt-get install virtualenv
 virtualenv -p python3.7 venv
 source venv/bin/activate

Execute ./install.sh

Load v4l2loopback

sudo modprobe v4l2loopback devices=1 exclusive_caps=1 video_nr=2 card_label="v4l2loopback"

Now you need to open two terminal windows. In one terminal window, do the following:

  cd bodypix
  node app.js

In the other terminal window, do the following:

    cd fakecam
    python fake.py

If you want use a looping video as background you can use -t option (default:image):

python fake.py -t video

If you want change the interval between two "samples" of the foreground mask you can use -m option (default:1) :

python fake.py -m 15

Todo

  • UI
  • Simplify installation and usage

Tested with

  • Microsoft Teams
  • Skype
  • Google Meet

Troubleshooting

tensorflow module

If you get "The N-API version of this Node instance is 1. This module supports N-API version(s)" read #3 (ianni67)

If you get "node core dumps with illegal instruction" read #2

Thanks to

  • Benjamin Elder,
  • fangfufu
  • Ianni - Giancarlo Iannizzotto (for making me fall in love with artificial vision and human-computer interaction, great teacher)
  • Pexels (looping videos), Unsplash (background images)

fiblan

Feedbacks are very appreciated (fiblan@tooware.com)

Information and instruction from Linux-Fake-Background-Webcam

Background

Video conferencing software support under Linux is relatively poor. The Linux version of Zoom only supports background replacement via chroma key. The Linux version of Microsoft Team does not support background blur.

Benjamen Elder wrote a blog post, describing a background replacement solution using Python, OpenCV, Tensorflow and Node.js. The scripts in Elder's blogpost do not work out of box. In this repository, I tidied up his scripts, and provide a turn-key solution for creating a virtual webcam with background replacement and additionally foreground object placement, e.g. a podium.

Rather than using GPU for acceleration as described by the original blog post, this version if CPU-only to avoid all the unnecessary complexities. By downscaling the image sent to bodypix neural network, and upscaling the received mask, this whole setup runs sufficiently fast under Intel i7-4900MQ.

Prerequisite

You need to install v4l2loopback. If you are on Debian Buster, you can do the following:

sudo apt install v4l2loopback-dkms

I added module options for v4l2loopback by creating /etc/modprobe.d/v4l2loopback.conf with the following content:

options v4l2loopback devices=1  exclusive_caps=1 video_nr=2 card_label="v4l2loopback"

exclusive_caps is required by some programs, e.g. Zoom and Chrome. video_nr specifies which /dev/video* file is the v4l2loopback device. In this repository, I assume that /dev/video2 is the virtual webcam, and /dev/video0 is the physical webcam.

I also created /etc/modules-load.d/v4l2loopback with the following content:

v4l2loopback

This automatically loads v4l2loopback module at boot, with the specified module options.

Installing with Docker

Please refer to DOCKER.md. The updated Docker related files were added by liske.

Using Docker is unnecessary. However it makes starting up and shutting down the virtual webcam very easy and convenient. The only downside is that you lose the ability to change background images on the fly.

Installing without Docker

Please also make sure that your TCP port 127.0.0.1:9000 is free, as we will be using it.

You need to have Node.js. Node.js version 12 is known to work.

You will need Python 3. You need to have pip installed. Please make sure that you have installed the correct version pip, if you have both Python 2 and Python 3 installed. Please make sure that the command pip3 runs.

I am assuming that you have set up your user environment properly, and when you install Python packages, they will be installed locally within your home directory.

You might want to add the following line in your .profile. This line is needed for Debian Buster.

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin":$PATH

Installation

Run ./install.sh.

Usage

You need to open two terminal windows. In one terminal window, do the following:

cd bodypix
node app.js

In the other terminal window, do the following:

cd fakecam
python3 fake.py

The files that you might want to replace are the followings:

  • fakecam/background.jpg - the background image

If you want to change the files above in the middle of streaming, replace them and press CTRL-C