I am one of lucky guys who works mostly from home, but I work for a big company and every now and then have teleconferences with people. The video is currently over Jabber or Skype from my dull looking basement.
What I would really like (yes, I am greedy here:) is a way to work from anywhere without my colleagues asking jealous questions and the only thing that stops me currently is my said basement on the video. I need a portable way to replace it with something - anything - consistent.
The ideal high-tech solution would be a video camera driver that substitutes the background, which I believe does not exists (I run Jabber on Apple and Skype mostly on Linux).
Low tech solution is a screen on the back. Regular Japanese type screens or photo backgrounds are bulky and may fall. A little screen hanging from a wall looks fine, but it would require finding a wall to hang it onto. Something attachable to the chair or even to my back appears more desirable. This screen http://www.amazon.com/Impact-Collapsible-Background-Black-White/dp/B0053EBFBQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1416519164&sr=1-1&keywords=collapsible+background looks good, but still too big folded. Light reflectors of similar design are smaller, but probably not very good as screens.
Perhaps, I should make one myself - reflector size wire loop with screen quality panel?
If anybody has a bright idea or a ready solution I would really appreciate it.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Illop on Monday November 24 2014, @08:03PM
That way you can have conferences on the Death Star.
(Score: 3, Informative) by zocalo on Monday November 24 2014, @08:19PM
A more practical solution however, especially if you would be happy with the same background or three, would be to look into the backdrops that photographers use in studios - google "photography backdrop", "studio backgound" or variations on the theme. These are typically rolls of vinyl in various sizes and can look quite effective if you get the right combination of quality, lens aperture and distance between camera, subject and background. Supports are generally wall mounted, a pair of collapsible stands with a crossbar or projector style, although you could easily rig something up yourself if you are in anyway competent at DIY.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Monday November 24 2014, @08:25PM
I myself, am partial to the subtle, continuously looping background for my Skype and WebEx - such as this example. [shutterstock.com]
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by khallow on Monday November 24 2014, @08:08PM
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Monday November 24 2014, @08:46PM
How about a roll up movie screen. Hire an artist to paint a trompe l'oeil ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trompe-l'œil [wikipedia.org] ) cubicle scene on it. Attach to ceiling. When not in use, roll up. When you need it, pull it down. This way you don't have a large object in the way when you don't need it.
(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Tuesday November 25 2014, @01:08AM
I think the easiest solution would be to have a bookcase behind you. It doesn't have to be pretentious. For an example, see one of Steve Gibson's podcasts [twit.tv].
1702845791×2
(Score: 1) by ibennetch on Tuesday November 25 2014, @03:19PM
Yeah, I think this is the most efficient way. Nothing is going to look more office-like than an actual office wall. No technological solution is going to be as easy, foolproof, or convincing as this.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Translation Error on Monday November 24 2014, @08:10PM
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday November 25 2014, @02:59PM
don't forget your red stapler and can of Raid. And some flair.
(Score: 1) by nicdoye on Monday November 24 2014, @08:10PM
+1 for The Prisoner reference.
Be seeing you.
I code because I can
(Score: 2) by aclarke on Monday November 24 2014, @08:11PM
Messages on OS X will let you videoconference from Yosemite, the beach, a fish tank, and probably other places as well. Run your Jabber video chat through Messages, and you might be able to achieve what you want.
Another option is to just use audio if you're somewhere you want to keep a secret. Or, make sure you have all your work done and people are never waiting for you, and then if you have a good team of people with you they won't mind if you're working from fun spots.
I work from home too. So does the rest of my team, so nobody really gets jealous about where someone else is. I've done video conferences from the Alps, southern Africa, and all sorts of fun places and the all it's really done is provide an intro to a couple minutes of chat that helps us all get to know each other a little better.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday November 25 2014, @01:16AM
How does "messages" accomplish this? ie how does it know what's you and what's background?
(Score: 2) by aclarke on Tuesday November 25 2014, @01:36AM
It gets you to step out of the background, then it compares that to what it sees when you step back in. I'm not sure how it handles dynamic backgrounds.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Tuesday November 25 2014, @04:25AM
Poorly.
(Score: 1) by Turbidity on Monday November 24 2014, @08:18PM
A grey or black sheet pinned to the wall will do nicely, surely.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Monday November 24 2014, @08:18PM
Maybe a backdrop holder like this: http://www.amazon.com/LimoStudio-Adjustable-Background-Backdrop-Support/dp/B00E6GRHBO/ref=lp_3443951_1_1?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1416860085&sr=1-1 [amazon.com]
Bonus points if your backdrop looks like a fish-tank background. Or you could go seasonal with something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Customized-photography-Background-SD453/dp/B00O1QD0B0/ref=pd_sim_op_7?ie=UTF8&refRID=02CA2EXXC5A659STQTPD [amazon.com]
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Buck Feta on Monday November 24 2014, @08:25PM
Hold all your conference calls from the moon [1decor.com].
- fractious political commentary goes here -
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday November 24 2014, @08:29PM
Put a USB camera near your keyboard, really close and facing up. Not only will your colleagues quickly lose interest in the content of your nostrils, but they will get used to only seeing a ceiling behind you.
Nothing looks more like a ceiling than another ceiling, unless you have luxury taste in your basement and/or travels.
(Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Monday November 24 2014, @11:40PM
To add to this idea, you can use a camera and lens with good 'depth of field' (that is, physically large sensor and wide aperture lens) to make the background blurry, the so-called bokeh.
(Score: 1) by bookreader on Wednesday November 26 2014, @10:49AM
Besides bigger sensor and wide aperture, shallow depth of field also benefits from distance between camera and object - the closer the object is, the better. And to blur the background even better, it needs to be away behind the object.
So if one has few-meters long basement and proper camera and lens it could work. It doesn't need to be expensive, one can use a cheap camera with DX sensor that can used as camera on your PC, and use manual focus lens like 200/4. The closest focus distance for such lenses is 2-3m, and it would be good if the background is at least as much away, like this:
[camera] --3m-- [person] --3+m-- [background]
Tripod for the camera and some light directed to the face could also be useful. A true photo geek would also use DoF calculator. Overall, it is doable.
By the way, bokeh is a word about the character of the out-of-focus area, not about blurry backgrounds. Bokeh can be pleasant, neutral, or not pleasant.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Fnord666 on Monday November 24 2014, @08:52PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 24 2014, @09:39PM
Ok this looks useful. Is there somthing like this for linux?
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday November 24 2014, @09:15PM
You need to get one of those skeletons that doctors always used to have in their surgeries, that hangs from a stand. Then you can put a frivolous hat on it at a jaunty angle. Bonus points if you have it smoking a pipe or something.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Monday November 24 2014, @09:28PM
from my dull looking basement.
my colleagues asking jealous questions and the only thing that stops me currently is my said basement on the video
I need a portable way to replace it
So problem one is your coworkers are jealous because their mom's basement isn't as dull as your basement and problem two is your basement is continually in motion thus the "needs to be portable".
Well, we all have our trials and tribulations. Emotions vs motions, not sure which is worse.
Personally I'd just go to walmart and find a giant poster of a beach scene of a G rating (Even in silicon Valley brogrammer land a bikini contest poster is going a bit far) and a big ole cheap poster frame and put it up or remove it as necessary. Or a landscape.
Another option is a giant TV, seeing as giant TVs are cheaper than giant windows (WTF about that, BTW?) and play a DVD of a fishtank or fireplace on the TV.
If you're looking for sympathy you pick a background like a 19th century factory or sweatshop. Or a prison. Or the goatse guy.
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Monday November 24 2014, @09:51PM
Or the goatse guy.
There's only one photo of the goatse guy that I recognize, and there's no chance that it would ever end up on my wall. I like the idea of a cubical farm painting from above. Bonus points if you get an Initech logo above the cube.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 24 2014, @10:57PM
HIS NAME IS KIRK JOHNSON!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 24 2014, @11:40PM
You've seen other pictures of him and didn't recognize him? I've seen two pictures of him and had no trouble. There was even a bottle to free-up his hands in the pose.
(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Tuesday November 25 2014, @01:16AM
I worked in a company which was based in multiple buildings and I introduced some Initech mugs to the otherwise plain mug pool. After transferring to another building, I thought that my additions had migrated to that building. However, upon closer inspection, the style of the mugs differed slightly...
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 25 2014, @09:20AM
I was just gonna say... get permission from your mom to put some eyelets into the ceiling and hang whatever you want.
Bonus points if you tell your D&D partners that you use them with your girl friend...
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday November 24 2014, @10:27PM
Get really fat, so that people can't see what' behind you.
Alternatively, have your skull surgically altered so that it is perfectly rectangular. Be sure to survey your teleconference partners first to find out their screen ratios, it would suck to get a 16:9 head only to discover they are all on 4:3.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 25 2014, @04:59PM
Hahaha! This is both better than and strangely reminiscent of Frank Herbert's Dune!
(Score: 2) by damnbunni on Monday November 24 2014, @11:06PM
You could always use FaceRig http://store.steampowered.com/app/274920/ [steampowered.com]
That lets you use whatever background you want in your stream.
Of course, then you'd have to explain to your coworkers why you're suddenly a red panda, or an elvish princess, or a cheeseburger. Might not be an improvement.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday November 25 2014, @02:41AM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Tuesday November 25 2014, @05:22AM
If you're going to go that route then buy a chroma key green screen [amazon.com]. It will work better with whatever software you are using to loop in a background. Personally I like boinxTV [boinx.com].
(Score: 1) by kaethy on Tuesday November 25 2014, @02:43AM
Hang drapes from the rafters. Drab beige pleated drapes should smash any jealousy.
(Score: 1) by In hydraulis on Tuesday November 25 2014, @06:20AM
Look Simon, I'm on a roller-coaster [youtube.com]
This works best if you click the following link to see how we ended up at this point:
Ten F26-A formal complaint notices in six months [27bslash6.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ibennetch on Tuesday November 25 2014, @03:09PM
First, don't do a greenscreen. Between uneven lighting, poor quality algorithms, and what seems like a lack of software support in the video chat clients you're using, I am quite confident that you wont be fooling anyone. Instead, you'll be drawing attention to the background and everyone will question what you're trying to accomplish/hide.
A screen such as the one you linked is probably going to be acceptable, but may look a bit odd due to being very flat and consistent in color. Sure, people won't see your water heater in the background, but the background might look a bit "off" -- whether this is a problem or not is going to be more a factor of lighting and the way the camera automatically adjusts than anything else. It certainly will look better than your washer and dryer behind you, but it might be too reflective. Drywall, which is the look you're trying to emulate here, is going to be a lot less reflective or dull than a white background. If you can find something with a bit of cream or grey instead of pure white, that may be an even better solution. Also, make sure it's big enough -- I'd set up the video as if you were doing a chat then get up (leaving the camera on so you can see yourself working in the screen) and mark off on the wall with painter's tape or a pencil where the four sides of the image frame fall. That way you can measure at least how big it needs to be (allowing some extra on the sides; there's nothing worse than turning your camera a bit and ruining the whole illusion. In my office, that means having a frame that's about four feet tall and five feet wide, of course your mileage may vary drastically. Actually, stretching a cream colored bedsheet between a few 2x4 boards making a frame is probably the cheapest solution.
I'm not sure what you mean when you say it has to be portable; there's a difference between "dragging it out of the way when I'm not in a meeting" and "taking it with me to other office sites/the vacation house" -- but the comment by khallow at http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=5005&cid=119534 [soylentnews.org] seems like a big winner to me. Pick up a cubical wall (or "office partition panel"), which should be a great size (perhaps putting two together side-by-side, depending on your exact needs); you can get wheels for it and roll it out of the way when not needed. Nothing looks more like you're stuck in an awful office than having a cubical wall stuffed up behind you. I've seen them available for resale pretty cheap, but even a new one isn't that much more than a similarly sized photographer-type background.
You could go for the obviously fake, like a large cityscape photograph background; you can get these backgrounds from many different photographer supply companies, but it doesn't seem to be what you're interested in. You see these sorts of backgrounds behind most news sets and in the interviews with reporters, experts, and so-called experts on the 24-hour news or sports stations. It's obvious the local news team isn't actually overlooking the city, but having a nice cityscape background beats having a white wall behind them. Depending on your relationship with your coworkers and how formal the workplace is, that might be a fun way to handle it.
So to summarize; there are many reasons to dismiss the idea of a greenscreen, my suggested cheap solution is a sheet pulled between a 2x4 frame, and the more expensive and completely believable background is to actually get a cubical wall and use that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 26 2014, @01:09AM
Thanks (the author of the question here)
I agree the software solution is not reliable. I tried some and there are always artefacts every now and then which makes the whole setup curiously suspicious.
Having said that, I have no problem telling co-workers that the background is artificial (to protect my privacy, for example). My goal here is to be able to fly say to Europe for a couple of weeks without advertising it. My other luggage usually fits in a medium backpack and I don't want to carry much more, otherwise I'd just use a room divider or a standard photo background stand. I'd like something really portable. It does not have to be high quality - again, I'll say it is a fake. What I don't want though is a total failure such as this one)
http://vk.com/video5768096_142490020 [vk.com]
(Score: 1) by ibennetch on Thursday November 27 2014, @09:01PM
Excellent! Then yes, I agree that any sort of roll-up stand (such as is used for a banner at a trade show) or photo background should be sufficient. You may want to get a photographer's background (this is one of the first [bhphotovideo.com] that came up in a quick Google search and gives you an idea what I mean). They can -- generally -- be folded and hung with two clamps to any available surface; the provision there being that you'll need something in the hotel room to clip it to such as an existing curtain rod or shower curtain. Those two solutions are probably good ways to travel rather light and may help get you in the right direction. Good luck!