Video conferencing software support for background blurring and background replacement 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. Over at Webcamoid, we tried to figure out if we can do these reliably using open source software (issues/250).
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 is 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.
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.conf with the following content:
v4l2loopback
This automatically loads v4l2loopback module at boot, with the specified module options.
If you get an error like
OSError: [Errno 22] Invalid argument
when opening the webcam from Python, please install v4l2loopback from the github repo, as you could have an old version from your package manager.
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 and foreground images on the fly.
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
Run ./install.sh.
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 imagefakecam/foreground.jpg- the foreground imagefakecam/foreground-mask.jpg- the foreground image mask
If you want to change the files above in the middle of streaming, replace them
and press CTRL-C
Note that animated background is now support. The background image does not have to be a jpeg file. For the implementation details, please refer to commit ee867be. Basically you can use any video file that your OpenCV can read.
If you are not running fakecam.py under Docker, it supports the following options:
usage: fake.py [-h] [-p] [-f FPS] [-w WIDTH] [-H HEIGHT] [-s SCALE_FACTOR]
[-b BODYPIX_URL] [-B BACKGROUND_IMAGE] [-F FOREGROUND_IMAGE]
[-M FOREGROUND_MASK_IMAGE] [-W WEBCAM_PATH]
[-V V4L2LOOPBACK_PATH]
Faking your webcam background under GNU/Linux. Please make sure your bodypix
network is running. For more information, please refer to:
https://github.com/fangfufu/Linux-Fake-Background-Webcam
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-p, --no-foreground Disable foreground image
-f FPS, --fps FPS How many FPS to process
-w WIDTH, --width WIDTH
Camera width
-H HEIGHT, --height HEIGHT
Camera height
-s SCALE_FACTOR, --scale-factor SCALE_FACTOR
Scale factor
-b BODYPIX_URL, --bodypix-url BODYPIX_URL
Tensorflow BodyPix URL
-B BACKGROUND_IMAGE, --background-image BACKGROUND_IMAGE
Background image path, animated background is
supported.
-F FOREGROUND_IMAGE, --foreground-image FOREGROUND_IMAGE
Foreground image path
-M FOREGROUND_MASK_IMAGE, --foreground-mask-image FOREGROUND_MASK_IMAGE
Foreground mask image path
-W WEBCAM_PATH, --webcam-path WEBCAM_PATH
Webcam path
-V V4L2LOOPBACK_PATH, --v4l2loopback-path V4L2LOOPBACK_PATH
V4l2loopback device path
Linux Fake Background Webcam
Copyright (C) 2020 Fufu Fang
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
Please note that Benjamen Elder's blog post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (see the bottom of that webpage). According to FSF, CC BY 4.0 is a noncopyleft license that is compatible with the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3), meaning I can adapt a CC BY 4.0 licensed work, forming a larger work, then release it under the terms of GPLv3.
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