And that without calling in twice. Laptop cameras as normally very crap. They say “1080p”, but most of the time they are 720p or less and have maybe 2 megapixels or less. Phones have way more and can be connected to the laptop via USB. There must be a way to use their camera over USB, right?
I know of USB over LAN, so surely this is possible.
Via USB, your options are extra software on the PC or jailbreaking the phone to install a kernel module. (edit: that kernel module would be the UVC one, seems like some phones ship it already)
The easiest solution is streaming the image over the network.
If you’re connected by USB then Android phones support ethernet over USB adapters, so you can make the computer present a network connection over the USB cable (internet sharing over USB) for more stable streaming.
https://github.com/darusc/VCamdroid
https://droidcam.app/