Originally published on Medium

Google Hangouts: Presentation with live facial background subtracted overlay!

With WFH becoming hugely fashionable as a result of the ongoing viral apocalypse, I thought it would be a good time to share some tricks I learned in my experiments with streaming myself programming on twitch, and a hack that lets you use the tools in the streaming industry inside standard video conference software.

Front and center in this the Open Broadcaster Software tool suite. It is a powerful cross-platform tool for screen recording, streaming, and real time video compositing. There are hundreds of tutorials out there that show you the neat stuff you can do with this platform. Here are some great jumping off points:

A demo with Image overlay, Multiple streamed windows and webcam

Here is the fun part: With an extension to OBS, (or some extra linux/osx tricks) can output your “stream” to a virtual webcam, which is then usable by any/all video conferencing tools out there.

I can center text now!

Happy hacking!