Live data from Hacker News

Open-Source Virtual Background

elder.dev

11–20 of 85 posts

Re: Open-Source Virtual Background

#12
I'm working on something very similar right now, so it's great to see that this is actually possible with currently available open-source resources. I'm trying to re-create Skype's background blur feature, but that I can use in OBS (obsproject.com) so I can apply it just to my webcam without messing up the other stream elements for online lectures. I've been using the the DeepLab model from tensorflow research repo to do segmentation, but BodyPix seems even better for the job. If it performs any better, this might be the break I was looking for...

Re: Open-Source Virtual Background

#16
Since it looks like your webcam is mounted to a stationary PC and you're only really writing this for yourself, wouldn't it be a lot easier to just subtract out a static picture of your background from the feed?

Re: Open-Source Virtual Background

#17
Fascinating write-up Ben, who would have known that you were a genius with image processing as well as running containers :-) Love the gory details and I didn't know about pyfakewebcam either.

Do you have a live video recorded showing how quickly it can process a stream?

Re: Open-Source Virtual Background

#19

Since it looks like your webcam is mounted to a stationary PC and you're only really writing this for yourself, wouldn't it be a lot easier to just subtract out a static picture of your background from the feed?

This breaks down in daylight (brightness shifts due to sun moving/clouds) or whenever anything shifts ever so slightly. Even shadows may make things appear where they shouldn't.

Chroma keying is the stable version of this idea: the single background color of a separately and well lit background removes these issues.

Re: Open-Source Virtual Background

#20
post #19

Since it looks like your webcam is mounted to a stationary PC and you're only really writing this for yourself, wouldn't it be a lot easier to just subtract out a static picture of your background from the feed?

This breaks down in daylight (brightness shifts due to sun moving/clouds) or whenever anything shifts ever so slightly. Even shadows may make things appear where they shouldn't. Chroma keying is the stable version of this idea: the single background color of a separately and well lit background removes these issues.

This

I did actually tinker with this and other approaches a little.

Also the things in the background get moved around pretty frequently, e.g. what is on the couch. I don't have a dedicated office room

Post reply on HN