Overview

These instructions configure Zoom on your computer so that it displays a live image from a web page, instead of displaying the video from your webcam.

They do this by using OBS Studio to create a virtual camera, that looks to Zoom like a webcam but can be configured to provide video from a web page instead of from the actual webcam.

Using OBS for this is different from using Zoom’s screen share feature. The OBS virtual camera it replaces your own image in the gallery, instead of showing your shared screen next to the gallery. This will allow us to create a room full of people who each display in the gallery as computational or augmented images, instead of only being able to display one person’s screen at a time.

Zoom, with screen sharing

Zoom + OBS, with virtual cameras

Note: Running all these programs at once will take a lot of effort from your computer. It has worked on some laptops that we tested with, but just barely. Hopefully it will work on yours. If it is too taxing for your computer, let us know and we will figure out a different approach.

Steps

Install and Launch OBS and Chrome

1. Download OBS from here, and install it.
2. Launch OBS.
3. Launch Chrome, if it is not already launched.
4. Open the https://openprocessing.org/sketch/1556869 https://poseshare.underconstruction.fun/ URL in Chrome.

Create an OBS Scene

Using the + button under the Scenes menu, create a Scene. Name it Choreography. Click on it to select it.

Add an OBS Source

Using the + button under the Sources menu, create a Window Capture source. Name the source “PoseShare (Chrome)” (or any name that will allow you to find and recognize the source later).

Use the Window popup menu to select the Google Chrome window.