New Software Can Mimic Eye Contact For Video Calls

Videoconferencing apps like Skype are great for making conversations with remote friends and colleagues a bit more personal. But for all their benefits, video calls have one major drawback: lack of eye contact.

When videoconferencing, your eyes tend to focus on the person you’re talking to. Unfortunately their location on a computer screen is typically lower than where the webcam is located. The result: It always looks as if everyone in the conversation is looking down on — rather than at — each other.

A new technology from the Computer Graphics Laboratory at ETH Zurich is looking to correct this issue with a piece of software that recognizes and rotates people's faces in video calls to make it appear as though they’re looking into the camera. The results are pretty amazing. Read more...