Fake Webcam Background for Arch Linux With Docker (Using akvcam)

Note: Updated to work with latest release (2021-06-23).

Fake virtual backgrounds for your online meeting on Linux

I’ve been attending a lot of video conference calls lately — like so many of us.
Others had nice-looking virtual backgrounds. But there was no option to create those backgrounds on my Linux machine.

For example, the Zoom version for Linux only allows me to “touch up my appearance”. But there is no option to set a virtual background.

Luckily, I am not the only one with this problem.

In this blog post I’ll show you how to create a fake virtual background for your web cam using Docker (docker-compose) and akvcam.

Using this setup, you can use fake backgrounds with Google Chrome (e.g., Jitsi) or stand-alone applications like Zoom.

This article mirrors the Github repository for Linux-Fake-Background-Webcam. Some steps from the README were unclear to me. That’s why I listed the steps here.

In this article, we will do the following:

Create a virtual camera
Setup Docker-Compose to use the virtual camera
Use the fake virtual background with Zoom or Chromium-based browsers

Install akvcam & Linux-Fake-Background-Webcam

akvcam is a virtual camera driver for Linux.

On Arch Linux/Manjaro Linux, install akvcam with yay or a different AUR helper:
```
yay -S akvcam-dkms
```
It seems that no pre-build images are available for Ubuntu, so you’ll need to follow the akvcam wiki.
We need a driver to create a virtual camera.
I prefer akvcam over the v4l2loopback-dkms driver as it works with Chrome/Chromium, too.
akvcam works with browser-based video conferencing software like Jitsi or Wonder.me.

Clone the Linux-Fake-Background-Webcam repository to your local machine.

Example commands using the terminal:

git clone https://github.com/fangfufu/Linux-Fake-Background-Webcam.git
cd Linux-Fake-Background-Webcam

Create a virtual camera.

Check for known video ports before loading the akvcam driver:

ls /dev/video*

Configure and load the driver:

sudo cp -r fakecam/akvcam /etc/
sudo modprobe videodev
sudo modprobe akvcam

You should now see additional video ports:

ls /dev/video*

Alternative command with example output:

v4l2-ctl --list-devices
>
akvcam (out) (platform:akvcam-2): /dev/video2
akvcam (platform:akvcam-3): /dev/video3

HD User Facing: HD User Facing (usb-0000:00:14.0-5):
/dev/video0
/dev/video1
/dev/media0

The virtual camera is available as /dev/video2 output.
dev/video0, dev/video1 and dev/media0 are the hardware ports.

Customize Docker and Docker-Compose Setup

The default settings come with an image that resembles an US American press release, complete with desk and American flag.
I’d rather opt for a neutral office background.

First, copy the environment file:

cp docker_defaults.env .env

You can change user settings in the .env file.
For example, I downloaded a living room image from unsplash and copied it to the fakecam folder as fake-living-room.jpg.

Example settings in .env:

# change images using a volume mapping
IMAGE_BACKGROUND=./fake-living-room.jpg

Important: The video input device must be your physical web camera, the output device must be the akvcam (out) camera. The default settings (see below) should normally work.
But check them again with v4l2-ctl --list-devices.
After a reboot, my devices “switched places” and the whole setup broke.

# change the device mappings if you are using diffent devices
VIDEO_INPUT=/dev/video0 # this needs to be your hardware camera
VIDEO_OUTPUT=/dev/video2 # this is the akvcam (out) channel

I also do not need the foreground image. Here are the steps to remove it.

Adjust the Dockerfile:


FROM python:3.8

RUN apt-get update && \
    apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
      python3-numpy \
      python3-opencv \
      python3-requests \
      && rm -rf /var/cache/apt/* /var/lib/apt/lists/*

WORKDIR /src

# COPY foreground.jpg \
#     foreground-mask.png \
#     background.jpg \
#     fake.py \
#     requirements.txt \
#     /src/

COPY background.jpg \
    fake.py \
    requirements.txt \
    /src/

RUN pip3 install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt

ENTRYPOINT ["python3", "-u", "fake.py"]
CMD []

Remove the foreground image and mask from docker-compose.yml:


services:

    fakecam:
        image: fakecam
        init: true
        build:
            context: ./
        read_only: true
        volumes:
            - ${IMAGE_BACKGROUND}:/src/background-custom:ro
            # - ${IMAGE_FOREGROUND}:/src/foreground-custom:ro
            # - ${IMAGE_FOREGROUND_MASK}:/src/foreground-mask-custom:ro
        devices:
            - ${VIDEO_INPUT}:/dev/video0
            - ${VIDEO_OUTPUT}:/dev/video2
        command: ["-b", "background-custom", #"-f", "foreground-custom" , "-m", "foreground-mask-custom",
                  "--webcam-path", "/dev/video0", "--v4l2loopback-path", "/dev/video2"]

Run the service with docker-compose:
```
docker-compose up --build
```
Or, if you want to run the service in the background:
```
docker-compose up --build -d
```
Use the virtual camera.

You can now open a video conferencing application and select akvcam as your video device.

Fake Webcam Background for Arch Linux With Docker (Using akvcam)

Install akvcam & Linux-Fake-Background-Webcam

Links