Can I use my laptop camera to 'view' pdf files on my laptop?

[simon43]

This is the problem:

 

I use different apps such as Zoom, Zhumu etc to teach online, and I share my computer screen with my students so that they can view the pdf of the text-book on my computer, or to view Google Search images etc.

 

Zoom restricts free usage to 40 minutes for each lesson, although one can log straight back in again. Access to Zoom by my students in China seems to vary across regions/dates.

 

Zhumu has been working fine, but they have now disabled the screen-share option for non-paying users.

 

So here's an idea: My students can see me on my camera.  If I were to redirect that camera to point at my computer screen with textbook pdf displayed on the screen, then they would see the book just fine without any need for screen-sharing.

 

But is there a 'soft' way to achieve the same by somehow redirecting the camera input to the Zhumu app to a file or image on my computer?  I sem to recall years ago that I used an application that allowed me to switch between different camera inputs, as well as file/image inputs.  Thanks

[Woof999]

ManyCam was the program of choice for years. It's probably still about, or something like it.

 

Personally, if I wanted to appear professional, I'd pay the fee for the app you're using so you can share as before. The people who wrote that app deserve to be paid. I'm assuming you're using their software to charge people for your services?

[Upnotover]

7 minutes ago, simon43 said:

but they have now disabled the screen-share option for non-paying users.

I think there is a better solution right there!

[simon43]

13 minutes ago, Woof999 said:

ManyCam was the program of choice for years. It's probably still about, or something like it.

 

Personally, if I wanted to appear professional, I'd pay the fee for the app you're using so you can share as before. The people who wrote that app deserve to be paid. I'm assuming you're using their software to charge people for your services?

Yes, it was Manycam.  Unfortunately, I have never found a way to pay for Zhumu! I used to pay for Zoom, but most of my lessons are 30 minutes long.

[Salerno]

@simon43 Given this is your livelihood, have you thought about setting up your own system? BigBlueButton is easy to setup nowadays, open source, integrates with various LMS/CMS if required, would be on your own server therefore access from China would unlikely to be an issue. 

[tgw]

would zoho be an option?

"Life Time Free Basic Plan"

 

https://www.zoho.com/meeting/pricing.html?src=hdd

[simon43]

1 hour ago, Salerno said:

@simon43 Given this is your livelihood, have you thought about setting up your own system? BigBlueButton is easy to setup nowadays, open source, integrates with various LMS/CMS if required, would be on your own server therefore access from China would unlikely to be an issue. 

Are you sure that this solution resides only on my own server?  Their website has an extremely load time from within mainland China?

 

PS - Their 'install' web link returns a 404 error!

Edited April 3, 2023 by simon43

[Salerno]

1 minute ago, simon43 said:

Are you sure that this solution resides only on my own server?  Their website has an extremely load time from within mainland China?

If you go self hosted, yes (you could say I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to these sort of things and, personally, prefer to self host where possible so my own personal bias factors into the suggestion 555).

 

Having never dealt with China (in a website sense) unfortunately I have no experience re ping time, I would assume if you host in Singapore for example it would be faster.

[simon43]

4 minutes ago, Salerno said:

If you go self hosted, yes (you could say I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to these sort of things and, personally, prefer to self host where possible so my own personal bias factors into the suggestion 555).

 

Having never dealt with China (in a website sense) unfortunately I have no experience re ping time, I would assume if you host in Singapore for example it would be faster.

I do use a web-server in Hong Kong which is specifically configured by the ISP to provide fast access from mainland China, and I use another in Singapore and another in Yangon (Myanmar) to host some of my files/websites.

 

I will check out the self-hosting ????

[Salerno]

10 minutes ago, simon43 said:

I do use a web-server in Hong Kong which is specifically configured by the ISP to provide fast access from mainland China, and I use another in Singapore and another in Yangon (Myanmar) to host some of my files/websites.

 

I will check out the self-hosting ????

Cool, shouldn't be an issue then. Personally I don't have an instance running now or I'd let you have a play with it but if you have the time worth a shot. Shouldn't take more than a half hour or so to setup if your server meets the requirements (see here re command line setup).

 

I used to run a Moodle based LMS with BigBlueButton integration, worked great but the powers that be (and our idiot IT department) decided (after 13 years!) that it must be better to pay for an inferior product as "Open source obviously can't be that good", the fact NATO uses a similar setup meant nothing to them ????‍♂️

[Salerno]

@simon43 Sorry, I may have gotten ahead of myself there, just remembered it should really be on it's own server, guessing all 3 of the servers you mentioned already have scripts installed? I believe it can be installed in a container but never tried it, see https://discuss.linuxcontainers.org/t/installing-bigbluebutton-with-lxd/16231

[KhunHeineken]

Is emailing them a scanned copy of the document/s for the lesson an option?  They are probably taking a screenshot or recording the lesson anyway. 

Edited April 4, 2023 by KhunHeineken

[JayClay]

22 hours ago, simon43 said:

Zoom restricts free usage to 40 minutes for each lesson, although one can log straight back in again. Access to Zoom by my students in China seems to vary across regions/dates.

 

Zhumu has been working fine, but they have now disabled the screen-share option for non-paying users.

You're a teacher, that makes your money from using the software. You need features that are only available in Pro.

 

Why don't you just pay the relatively small monthly fee for the product rather than look for a bunch of work arounds that will cause you a bunch of headaches and stress?