After a year working from home, many of us are sick and tired of infinity video meetings. We now have an excuse to leave these conferences with a new tool called Zoom Escape.
Digital artist Sam Lavigne created the incredibly simple web app, he first reported per The Verge. All you have to do is install an audio connector called VB-Audio of the product Web page, so make sure you have the appropriate audio devices selected, and then open Zoom as usual. From there, you can play a collection of Zoom sound effects designed to irritate or annoy your co-workers, apparently to the point that your co-workers will ask you to leave the video call.
Some of the the sound effects are a little simpler than others. Clips of a crying baby and active construction seem the safest.way out of the video meeting, while the sound of Bad Connection realistically mimics the bewildered audio that people can hear if you have weak internet.
But other effects, like a crying man or the sound of urinating, you can ask more questions to your co-workers than a nice incentive to log out, and if used at an inopportune time, you may be referred to HR. Fortunately, if none of the predefined Zoom Escaper clips have the intended effect, you can also manually upload your own sound sounds.. After all, the more you adapt the sound effects to your specific situation, the more credible your excuse will be.
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And although Zoom Escaper certainly can’t be used to get out of it all video meeting for the foreseeable future, could be a useful tool for those calls in which madness can no longer be managed.
But for me, the most impressive thing about Lavigne’s work is her dedication to reducing Zoom in a quest for a better work-life balance. JoIn addition to Zoom Escaper, Lavigne has also created Slow computer i Zoom Deleter, the latter routinely checks the computer to see if Zoom i is installed automatically, if Zoom is detected.
Lavigne told The Verge some of the basic principles of his art are “deliberate slowdown, reduced productivity and production, and self-sabotage.” Joat a time when the boundaries between home life and work life have been basically blurred, these they are philosophies that almost everyone can appreciate.