sgnls/webcam-filters

Add filters (background blur, etc) to your webcam on Linux.

webcam-filters

Add filters (background blur, etc) to your webcam on Linux.

Video conferencing applications tend to either lack video effects altogether or support only a limited set of capabilities on Linux (e.g. Zoom [1], Google Meets [2]).

Goal here is to provide a virtual webcam via v4l2loopback with a common set of filters that can be used everywhere.

• Usage
• Dependencies
  • v4l2loopback
  • Gstreamer
• Installation
  • Nix
    • VAAPI
  • Pipx/Pip

Usage

Passthrough (no-op):

$ webcam-filters --input-dev /dev/video0 --output-dev /dev/video3

Blur background:

$ webcam-filters --input-dev /dev/video0 --output-dev /dev/video3 --background-blur 150

Dependencies

Other than the Python dependencies that can be automatically installed by Pip, there are a few system dependencies that require manual attention.

v4l2loopback

v4l2loopback kernel module is required to emulate a virtual webcam. See your distro's docs or v4l2loopback on how to install and set it up (e.g. https://archlinux.org/packages/community/any/v4l2loopback-dkms/).

You'll probably want to create at least one loopback device (that's persistent on boot):

$ sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/v4l2loopback.conf << "EOF"
# /dev/video3
options v4l2loopback video_nr=3
options v4l2loopback card_label="Virtual Webcam"
options v4l2loopback exclusive_caps=1
EOF
$ sudo modprobe v4l2loopback
$ v4l2-ctl --device /dev/video3 --info

Gstreamer

• gstreamer-1.0 (e.g. https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/gstreamer/)
• gst-python (e.g. https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/gst-python/)
• gst-plugins-base (e.g. https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/gst-plugins-base/)
• gst-plugins-good (e.g. https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/gst-plugins-good/)
• Optional:
  • gstreamer-vaapi for hardware acceleration (e.g. https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/gstreamer-vaapi/)

Installation

Nix

The provided Nix package bundles all the necessary GStreamer dependencies and should "just work" on any distro.

Setup the cache. This step is optional, but it should speed up the installation process:

$ nix-env -iA cachix -f https://cachix.org/api/v1/install
$ cachix use sohi

Install a specific release version/tag:

$ nix-env \
    --install \
    --file https://github.com/jashandeep-sohi/webcam-filters/archive/refs/tags/v0.2.2.tar.gz

Install a specific branch (e.g. master):

$ nix-env \
    --install \
    --file https://github.com/jashandeep-sohi/webcam-filters/archive/refs/heads/master.tar.gz

VAAPI

For VAAPI support with Nix on non-NixOS systems use nixGL:

$ nix-env \
    --file https://github.com/guibou/nixGL/archive/main.tar.gz \
    --install \
    --attr auto.nixGLDefault \
    --arg enable32bits false
$ export LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=iHD # Or whatever works with your GPU
$ nixGL webcam-filters --input-dev /dev/video0 --output-dev /dev/video3 --hw-decoder vaapi

Pipx/Pip

You can also use pipx or pip. Pipx is recommend to keep Python dependencies isolated. Keep in mind this will not install gst-python or any of the other GStreamer dependencies, so you'll have to install that yourself.

Latest stable:

$ pipx install --system-site-packages webcam-filters
$ # Or
$ pip install --user webcam-filters

Latest pre-release:

$ pipx install --system-site-packages --pip-args='--pre' webcam-filters
$ # Or
$ pip install --user --pre webcam-filters

Git:

$ url="git+https://github.com/jashandeep-sohi/webcam-filters.git"
$ pipx install --system-site-packages "$url"
$ # Or
$ pip install --user "$url"

[1]	Zoom desktop client supports background blur as of version 5.7.6. Zoom on web does not.

[2]	Google Meets supports background blur only on Chrome.