Eye Contact via Multiple Cameras

May 16th, 2014
ideas, tech
Video chat has an eye-contact problem. You look at the image of the person, but the camera's in a corner so they see you staring off into space:

camera lower right
camera lower left
camera upper right
camera upper left

The fancy way to fix this is you put the camera behind the screen. No one seems to have figured out how to do this with cell phones, though, and it seems hard. What if we just put four cameras on the phone, one in each corner? Then you integrate the images and construct a new one with the eyes looking where they should:


(image not actually product of proposed method)

Fixing eye contact would be really nice. So: how hard is the image processing problem? How expensive is it to put on three more front-facing cameras? Or could we just do two cameras, top and bottom?

(I do see some work on this (2001) but nothing recent.)

Comment via: google plus, facebook, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Family Christmas

Unlike many families my family celebrates Christmas with really really a lot of our family. This past year there were about 29 people at my Grandfather's house in the week around Christmas. I know what you're thinking: how does that work? It's…

via Lily Wise's Blog Posts January 3, 2026

Why I Don't Think My Braces Were Worth It

A couple weeks ago, I got my braces off. I kind of wish I had never had them, though. When I was younger, two of my teeth were sticking out, and they looked kind of funny. I thought that my teeth were just fine, and I didn't want to get braces. But s…

via Anna Wise's Blog Posts January 3, 2026

Donation recommendations for effective altruists

My recommendation for donors who are American citizens or permanent residents is that they donate directly to high-value political candidates.

via Thing of Things January 2, 2026

more     (via openring)