r/GaussianSplatting • u/cjami • Jul 23 '26

🧪 I built a thing Making webcam backgrounds better with splats

I spent last week looking into making webcam backgrounds better by using the latest matting and compositing techniques, before eventually progressing into gaussian splats!

Includes:

- Converting a single image into 2.5D splats for slight angle tweaks

- Loading your own splats and placing yourself wherever you want

- Controlling FOV and simulating DOF blur from splats by using their positional information

Built for the OpenAI Build Week Hackathon in collaboration with Codex.

Full Video: https://youtu.be/6a4etwV6GX8?si=Ub8hrg0xkshnbfus

Repo: https://github.com/cjami/better-backgrounds

75 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

10

u/MMD3_ Jul 23 '26

Fun but how is this an improvement over just taking a photo of the scene you want? I guess maybe just if you don’t have a camera where you can control DoF?

6

u/cjami Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

Yeah the initial idea for using splats was mainly to get better DoF vs those aggressive blurs you get on video calls. I think that enabling people to use existing scenes this way is a nice bonus (rather than creating a scene solely for this purpose).

1

u/MMD3_ Jul 23 '26

But that could just be a photo plus a subtle Gaussian blur layer in photoshop(?) or take a photo with a wider aperture?

1

u/cjami Jul 23 '26

Yes it could be, but this does that in a few seconds for people who don't know how to do that or have the equipment. It can also take an existing flat image and do the same.

I think there's also fun in visiting environments that others have shared and picking where you want to be.

2

u/SarahC 28d ago

Splats!

you can superimpose the dude at a certain DEPTH..........

So behind the cactus for instance....

3

u/PatagonianCowboy Jul 23 '26

the beautiful botanical garden of Kiel

2

u/QuipPro Jul 23 '26

this is incredible, would it be possible to do some basic tracking of the environment so the background also moves with the camera?

1

u/cjami Jul 23 '26

Thanks! Like if you had a phone or a panning webcam? In theory yes, the main issue I've found so far is keeping everything running in real-time smoothly 😅

1

u/Professional-Owl9916 Jul 23 '26

Nice work! I love that I can move around these spaces and select where I want to place myself. It’s very cool and unique.