Mimic: A Remote Webcam Device Over WebRTC

Abstract

Whether it be classes, work, or social gatherings, the global pandemic has shown that the world can operate in a virtual space. The growing popularity of working from home saw a steady rise in video conferencing. In a virtual space, it is often necessary that participants have a webcam to have a meaningful connection with others. However, some participants may not own a webcam. Mimic is a software solution to allow the use of a webcam-enabled device, such as a smartphone, as a webcam on a computer that does not have a camera. The goal of Mimic is to provide the capacity to use a secondary device as a webcam input without the need to install any additional software on that mobile device. Mimic can accomplish this by building a web client that leverages the power of modern web browsers and WebRTC to stream the webcam video feed from a mobile device to another computer.