With a new app, teachers can use their iPhone or iPad as an overhead camera on Zoom

Teachers who have kept to themselves about Zoom have probably already noticed clever hacks in showing their students documents, but there is now an app designed specifically for that 9to5Mac). Overviewer was created by developer Charlie Chapman, and it allows teachers (or anyone, really) to easily use the camera of their phone as a replacement for a documentary viewer.

If there’s been a minute since your student, or if your school has not had these overhead devices, these are basically webcams pointing to the bottom right so that teachers can write or image a printed document, book, signature or other piece. This is a useful ability to have, but many teachers work because of COVID and may not have access to one like in the classroom.

Overview is a replacement using Zoom’s built-in screen sharing feature that works with the iPhone when connected to a computer with a lightning cable, or wirelessly via AirPlay (at the moment Zoom does not seem to offer this no. feature for Android users). It shows an input from the camera of your phone on the screen, and does not interfere with anything else. The feature also offers the ability to turn on the flash of your phone if your lighting situation is not ideal, as well as the option to change which camera is displayed.

In a heartwarming blog post about how he developed the app for his wife, who works as a kindergarten teacher, Chapman explains how he saw his wife use iOS ‘built-in camera app to do the same, and how frustrated she was by the lack of landscape support and all the buttons covered on the screen:

Because I was the dark man, I quickly built an app that does nothing but show what the phone camera sees with zero chrome, and rotates the entire app properly so you can share it in the landscape with zoom. It did the trick and she actually used it!

It’s pretty much tailored for exactly my wife’s use, but I’d think it’s pretty common for teachers to be in our current virtual education world right now.

If you are a teacher or thinking of other apps for the app, it is available for free in the App Store. Please note that if you are using a Mac, Zoom will ask for permission to record your screen and start over to share your phone’s screen (this is because Zoom only displays your phone’s screen on your computer, and then to capture that window).

For more information on how the app works, the developer has made a video that you can watch below.