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Needed to blur the clutter behind me for meetings. Zoom and Google Meets don't support that on Linux. Couldn't find any existing solution that would give me a d

Needed to blur the clutter behind me for meetings. Zoom and Google Meets don't support that on Linux. Couldn't find any existing solution that would give me a decent frame-rate for HD resolution without lagging. Wrote this instead. Relies heavily on GStreamer under the hood for the video processing bits. And mediapipe for the selfie segmentation bit. Obviously need v4l2loopback to emulate a webcam. It's functional, but feedback and contributions are welcome :)

tvst 5y ago
Chrome on Linux here. Google Meet blurs my background just fine.
- dumdumdumdum 5y ago
  Not on Firefox though for some reason. Is there some special API only Chrome implements?
  - lathiat 5y ago
    It works for me on Chrome but I had to use Wayland (not Xorg) and then force enable GPU rendering because it's currently blacklisted for Wayland. Possibly relatedly to that blacklist every couple of days (even with rebotos) new tabs in an existing browser window stop rendering content and I have to quit and reload. That doesn't seem to happen on Xorg/without GPU.
  - input_sh 5y ago
    Nope, no special API what so ever. In fact there's even a Firefox add-on that makes it work[0], Google Meet just doesn't target more than Chromium with this feature. If you try using it, they'll redirect you here[1], and tell you to: > Check if your browser supports WebGL 2.0 at webglreport.com and verify that “Major Performance Caveat” is marked as “No”. ...but clicking on that site from Firefox shows WebGL 2.0 support and "Major Performance Cavet" is indeed marked as "no". That being said, simply changing the user agent to Chrome also doesn't work. So in conclusion, I end up using Chromium a few hours per week purely for Google Meet's blurry backgrounds, and I use Firefox for everything else. [0] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/mercator-studio/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/mercator-stud... [1] https://support.google.com/meet/answer/10058482?hl=en&expand_all_zippies=true#requirements&zippy=%2Crequirements-for-change-background-on-desktop https://support.google.com/meet/answer/10058482?hl=en&expand...
    - lerela 5y ago
      Any reason not to use the add-on you mention in [0] instead of falling back to Chromium?
      - input_sh 5y ago
        Not really, I'm just used to this workflow. I've tried it, it works, and then went back to Chromium for this use case out of habit.
    - Aissen 5y ago
      Played with the extension, it does not seem to enable this feature: the option appears, but then there's an error message. Although the other features are fun.
  - saghul 5y ago
    Kinda. Google uses the WebAssembly SIMD extension for their segmentation. Not sure if they have a fallback on Firefox, but if they do, it most likely won't perform the same way.
    - opencl 5y ago
      Firefox has had WASM SIMD for a few months now, it was enabled by default in FF89. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1695585 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1695585
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
nitinreddy88 5y ago
Thank you! I am going to try this today asap and test with Zoom. I heavily use Zoom for work and this is something lacking in Linux client
- everfrustrated 5y ago
  Zoom now supports this on Linux natively as of a new release a couple of weeks back.
  - luke2m 5y ago
    Yep, and Google Meet always has for me (about half a year of using it).
captn3m0 5y ago
Zoom desktop on Linux added support for this recently (20th August). I tested this a bit, and it seems to work okay. Has blur support. See https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/205759689-Release-notes-for-Linux https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/205759689-Release-... and https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360043484511 https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360043484511
- dumdumdumdum 5y ago
  That's good news, but I'm kinda stuck using the web interface because the desktop client doesn't allow sharing single Wayland windows in presentation mode. Unless they've changed that too recently?
  - captn3m0 5y ago
    I was at a meeting with a vendor the other day, and I got an option to enable Blur on the web interface in Chrome. Might be a beta-feature.
- sofixa 5y ago
  It doesn't support blur: > The blurred background option is only available for the Windows and macOS desktop clients, as well as the Android and iOS mobile apps. Desktop clients must meet the "Image only without a physical green screen" requirements.
  - captn3m0 5y ago
    I think the docs are not updated correctly, I have blur on my local Zoom client (Running https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/zoom https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/zoom) Here's a screenshot of the settings: https://imgur.com/a/f1XgOwz https://imgur.com/a/f1XgOwz
    - sofixa 5y ago
      Hm, on my Ubuntu 20.04 i don't have Blur, only 3 virtual backgrounds, none of which work unless i click on "I have a green screen." I did a full reinstall, the version is the latest, and the dependencies are all installed and on latest. Weird.

tvst 5y ago

Chrome on Linux here. Google Meet blurs my background just fine.

dumdumdumdum 5y ago
Not on Firefox though for some reason. Is there some special API only Chrome implements?
- lathiat 5y ago
  It works for me on Chrome but I had to use Wayland (not Xorg) and then force enable GPU rendering because it's currently blacklisted for Wayland. Possibly relatedly to that blacklist every couple of days (even with rebotos) new tabs in an existing browser window stop rendering content and I have to quit and reload. That doesn't seem to happen on Xorg/without GPU.
- input_sh 5y ago
  Nope, no special API what so ever. In fact there's even a Firefox add-on that makes it work[0], Google Meet just doesn't target more than Chromium with this feature. If you try using it, they'll redirect you here[1], and tell you to: > Check if your browser supports WebGL 2.0 at webglreport.com and verify that “Major Performance Caveat” is marked as “No”. ...but clicking on that site from Firefox shows WebGL 2.0 support and "Major Performance Cavet" is indeed marked as "no". That being said, simply changing the user agent to Chrome also doesn't work. So in conclusion, I end up using Chromium a few hours per week purely for Google Meet's blurry backgrounds, and I use Firefox for everything else. [0] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/mercator-studio/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/mercator-stud... [1] https://support.google.com/meet/answer/10058482?hl=en&expand_all_zippies=true#requirements&zippy=%2Crequirements-for-change-background-on-desktop https://support.google.com/meet/answer/10058482?hl=en&expand...
  - lerela 5y ago
    Any reason not to use the add-on you mention in [0] instead of falling back to Chromium?
    - input_sh 5y ago
      Not really, I'm just used to this workflow. I've tried it, it works, and then went back to Chromium for this use case out of habit.
  - Aissen 5y ago
    Played with the extension, it does not seem to enable this feature: the option appears, but then there's an error message. Although the other features are fun.
- saghul 5y ago
  Kinda. Google uses the WebAssembly SIMD extension for their segmentation. Not sure if they have a fallback on Firefox, but if they do, it most likely won't perform the same way.
  - opencl 5y ago
    Firefox has had WASM SIMD for a few months now, it was enabled by default in FF89. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1695585 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1695585
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

nitinreddy88 5y ago

Thank you! I am going to try this today asap and test with Zoom. I heavily use Zoom for work and this is something lacking in Linux client

everfrustrated 5y ago
Zoom now supports this on Linux natively as of a new release a couple of weeks back.
- luke2m 5y ago
  Yep, and Google Meet always has for me (about half a year of using it).

captn3m0 5y ago

Zoom desktop on Linux added support for this recently (20th August). I tested this a bit, and it seems to work okay. Has blur support. See https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/205759689-Release-notes-for-Linux https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/205759689-Release-... and https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360043484511 https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360043484511

dumdumdumdum 5y ago
That's good news, but I'm kinda stuck using the web interface because the desktop client doesn't allow sharing single Wayland windows in presentation mode. Unless they've changed that too recently?
- captn3m0 5y ago
  I was at a meeting with a vendor the other day, and I got an option to enable Blur on the web interface in Chrome. Might be a beta-feature.
sofixa 5y ago
It doesn't support blur: > The blurred background option is only available for the Windows and macOS desktop clients, as well as the Android and iOS mobile apps. Desktop clients must meet the "Image only without a physical green screen" requirements.
- captn3m0 5y ago
  I think the docs are not updated correctly, I have blur on my local Zoom client (Running https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/zoom https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/zoom) Here's a screenshot of the settings: https://imgur.com/a/f1XgOwz https://imgur.com/a/f1XgOwz
  - sofixa 5y ago
    Hm, on my Ubuntu 20.04 i don't have Blur, only 3 virtual backgrounds, none of which work unless i click on "I have a green screen." I did a full reinstall, the version is the latest, and the dependencies are all installed and on latest. Weird.