Can I use a video file as camera input?

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Alexybubble
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Joined: 6. Jul 2021, 03:27

Can I use a video file as camera input?

Post by Alexybubble »

I know that this is a bit niche, but I'm a college student, and one of my classes requires that I use a browser extension that, among other things, requires an active microphone and camera. I'm trying to run the extension on a VM, to get around its sketchy privileges, but I need a way to have VB set up so that it recognizes a video file as the active camera and mic input without using any additional software within the VM, but I couldn't find any answers on how to do this, so does anyone here have any ideas?
mpack
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Re: Can I use a video file as camera input?

Post by mpack »

The only "virtual camera" provided by VirtualBox is a webcam passthrough (if the extension pack is installed). So AFAIK, no, you can't treat a video file as a camera using features built into VirtualBox.

Why not just get yourself a webcam with microphone? You can point the camera at a poster or something, and you can presumably unplug it when it isn't needed.
scottgus1
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Re: Can I use a video file as camera input?

Post by scottgus1 »

FWIW there are some 3rd-party apps that can simulate a video camera for other apps to use. My web-searches says OBS Studio can do it, and there may be others. Whether these apps can be used by Virtualbox as a video camera is another matter...
Alexybubble
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Joined: 6. Jul 2021, 03:27

Re: Can I use a video file as camera input?

Post by Alexybubble »

mpack wrote:The only "virtual camera" provided by VirtualBox is a webcam passthrough (if the extension pack is installed). So AFAIK, no, you can't treat a video file as a camera using features built into VirtualBox.

Why not just get yourself a webcam with microphone? You can point the camera at a poster or something, and you can presumably unplug it when it isn't needed.
The program is stronger than that. If it detects that there isn't any movement, it will say that I'm cheating on the test that it's required for. I already have a webcam with a microphone, the point is just that I don't want the software to have ANY access to my base PC.
scottgus1
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Re: Can I use a video file as camera input?

Post by scottgus1 »

Alexybubble wrote:it will say that I'm cheating
I would suppose that if this is something you could get in trouble for, then bypassing the cheating check by feeding a video file to it will be out of the school's desire and may get you in trouble too. It might be considered cheating. Just a thought...
Alexybubble wrote:I don't want the software to have ANY access to my base PC.
If a 3rd-party option apparently missed above does not get you what you want, and if keeping the browser extension off your PC is the goal, I'd switch out the PCs hard drive, install the OS afresh, take the test, then switch the drive back.
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