[HN Gopher] Eye Contact Correction: Redirecting the eyes to look...
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       Eye Contact Correction: Redirecting the eyes to look at the camera
        
       Author : thunderbong
       Score  : 150 points
       Date   : 2024-10-16 01:37 UTC (21 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.sievedata.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.sievedata.com)
        
       | vintagedave wrote:
       | The results here in their sample video look _really good_: other
       | tech I've seen in the past looked "wrong". But the sample input
       | is not one I'd characterize as looking away from the screen. Eyes
       | move around like the person is thinking. The result video only
       | looks more focused. It's effective in carrying focus (it really
       | does matter when someone looks directly at you), but it's making
       | tiny changes.
       | 
       | > Limitations
       | 
       | > Works best with frontal face views and moderate head rotations.
       | 
       | > Extreme head poses or gaze directions may produce less accurate
       | results.
       | 
       | There it is. To use this I'd like to see an example showing it
       | stop adjusting when "extreme" aka normal head poses are used. If
       | it can handle real behavior and improve eye tracking in the
       | optimal case so it's seamless adjusting / not as someone moves
       | around, that would be a good product.
        
         | EdwardDiego wrote:
         | My issue is the usual with laptop cameras, if I'm looking at
         | you, my eyes are looking downwards, and it's very awkward
         | speaking into the camera without seeing your face as I speak.
        
       | AStonesThrow wrote:
       | This is unfortunate, and perhaps more pernicious than obvious
       | deep fakes, is a video filter that lies to the recipients.
       | 
       | Several years ago during the pandemic, I enlisted a job coach to
       | get me hired. One of her paramount concerns was my eye-contact
       | with the camera. She said it's so important. Am I paying
       | attention? Am I an honorable man who maintains eye contact when
       | I'm in a conversation? If I look away, am I collecting my
       | thoughts, or prevaricating?
       | 
       | Many supervisors, managers, and teachers will judge their
       | employees by whether they can pay attention during meetings, or
       | if they're distracted, in their phone's screen, looking at
       | keyboard, glancing off at children or spouse. Even more
       | important, if you're meeting your _wife_ and _she_ can 't even
       | maintain your attention, what kind of husband are you?
       | 
       | If you employ a gadget to _lie about this_ , then I hope they
       | fire you and find someone who'll be honest. I hope your wife
       | sends you to sleep on the sofa.
        
         | karlgkk wrote:
         | > If you employ a gadget to lie about this
         | 
         | This has been enabled on iPhones, by default, for like 5 years
         | now. You never even noticed.
         | 
         | Their implementation only does a small adjustment, which works
         | so well that most people don't even know it's being done.
        
           | olyjohn wrote:
           | If we never noticed it, do we even need it? I don't use
           | FaceTime, but have never been bothered by where people are
           | looking in any other video conferencing software.
        
           | bravetraveler wrote:
           | > You never even noticed
           | 
           | I have seen three cameras in use in nearly a decade. They
           | were all in interviews. I'm not avoiding opportunities,
           | either. Legitimately 4+ hours a day
           | 
           | Might be fair to say not many cared to see/be seen
        
         | maximilianroos wrote:
         | Sounds like the coach helped you maintain eye-contact with the
         | camera. But if we get a tool to do this, then we're lying.
         | Would you say the coach helped you lie?
        
           | CGamesPlay wrote:
           | That doesn't even make sense. The lie is that you're not
           | doing the thing you are projecting as doing. You just said
           | the coach helped the poster do the thing they projected as
           | doing.
        
         | function_seven wrote:
         | I would go so far as to say the _un_ corrected gaze is a lie.
         | When I'm on a videoconference, I _am_ looking directly at
         | whoever is speaking, but the camera's physical placement tells
         | the "lie" that I'm looking down at something else. This is
         | because we haven't figured out a good way of placing the camera
         | literally wherever the eyes of the other party show up on the
         | screen. So the camera is, by necessity, in the wrong position
         | for video conferencing. But if we can fix it in software, then
         | we can mitigate the "lie" somewhat.
         | 
         | This is especially true for my set up, where I have two screens
         | side-by-side with the camera replaced right between them. I
         | just stare at the camera because otherwise it looks like I'm
         | looking way off to the left or right. If I do look at the
         | people who are talking, what they see is me looking off at
         | "something else." That's a lie! :)
        
           | AStonesThrow wrote:
           | This is true, and unfortunate, but for the past 100 years,
           | everyone has known that to make eye contact with a camera,
           | you look into its lens. The instantaneous display of output
           | is very recent, and if you ask a professional actress or news
           | anchor what they do in the studio, they will tell you that
           | they're trained to look into the camera lens, no matter
           | what's on the monitors.
           | 
           | I contend that it's unproductive to train consumers
           | otherwise. Yeah, we could look at the screen and have
           | software correct it. Or, we may eventually integrate lenses
           | into screens so that they're placed exactly right. But it
           | seems kludgy to do this software fix. Just train people to
           | look in the right place. (I hate iPhones and I'm
           | unable/unwilling to do Facetime with them. Please use Meet or
           | Teams.)
           | 
           | I'm gradually building skills that let me be aware of what's
           | on the screen without having to stare into it. Having a
           | relaxed, wide field of vision helps with many things. Glasses
           | are counterproductive here.
        
             | Izkata wrote:
             | News anchor yes, actor/actress no. They look off to the
             | side.
        
               | AStonesThrow wrote:
               | Ah yes, that's true - unless the character is "breaking
               | the fourth wall" like Clarissa Darling, they'll be
               | avoiding the direct gaze of the viewer for sure.
               | 
               | Another example, though, would be vocalists in a video;
               | usually they'll be singing right at the viewer and making
               | a connection there, unless they're just too cool and
               | aloof.
        
         | niij wrote:
         | edit: studio_seven said it better than I could. You're confused
         | on what the perspective is with videoconferencing. There is no
         | hardware with a camera in the middle of the screen; so you're
         | always "looking away" to some degree.
        
           | AStonesThrow wrote:
           | No, I'm not confused at all. As I pointed out, the standard
           | for 100 years: if you want eye contact, you look into the
           | camera lens. The only thing that's changed recently is the
           | availability of a direct, instantaneous monitor to distract
           | us.
           | 
           | Furthermore, if this corrects _only_ someone who 's looking
           | directly at the screen, it'd be tolerable. But does it also
           | correct eyes looking at a keyboard, eyes looking at a
           | smartphone screen, eyes looking at a wayward toddler? That's
           | worse.
           | 
           | Also... _ten cents per minute_? That 's highway robbery!
        
             | niij wrote:
             | If I'm looking at a camera lens I'm not making eye contact.
             | This isn't about broadcasting it's about videoconferences.
        
               | AStonesThrow wrote:
               | No, you don't understand the definition of "eye contact".
               | Contact, by definition, is when my eyes meet yours
               | directly. It takes two to tango, and to maintain eye
               | contact, it is necessary for both of us to cooperate.
               | 
               | The camera is the eye. Anyone seeing video of me is
               | seeing me through the eyes of a camera. Therefore, to
               | "make eye contact" I look into the camera, not into
               | arbitrary pixels. In videoconferencing, it's wholly
               | irrelevant where my audience's eyes are located, whether
               | they're even visible. In videoconferencing, our cameras
               | are the eyes, and that's how to make eye contact, because
               | when I see you on the screen looking into the camera,
               | your eyes are directed towards mine seeing the screen.
               | 
               |  _For over a hundred years,_ any subject of a camera has
               | known that if you look into that camera lens, then your
               | gaze will be perceived as  "eye contact" to any viewers.
               | Where do you look when you're taking a selfie? Or a
               | wedding photographer is taking your photo? Do you look in
               | the photographer's eyes? Do you stare at his flashbulb?
               | That's fucking nuts!
               | 
               | Why is this so hard to understand?
               | 
               | If AI is directed to help us lie about a particular, very
               | human, interaction cue, then is it any surprise we're a
               | world full of autists and Asperger babies?
        
         | allenu wrote:
         | That reminds me of a few months into the pandemic, one of the
         | VPs at the company I was working at was presenting in a Zoom-
         | based all-hands. I remember that he was very clearly looking
         | directly into the eye of the camera as opposed to looking at
         | his monitor's video feed like everyone else. I remember
         | thinking that it felt a little bit weird and unnatural and very
         | performative, like a politician, since he very obviously
         | intentionally wanted to come across as more human by looking
         | directly at the audience, although at the same time it was a
         | fake look since he wasn't looking directly into the eyes of any
         | one person, but a camera.
         | 
         | Perhaps other people didn't think about it as deeply as I did
         | and maybe it did have the intended effect, but I remember I
         | didn't see him or anyone else doing the same thing in any
         | future all-hands.
        
         | Der_Einzige wrote:
         | The fact that your feathers are rustled is what make it all the
         | more delicious and delightful that it exists.
         | 
         | All attempts by folks to subvert the freedom to direct one's
         | attention where they want to are tyrannical in nature. If you
         | can't detect it's happening, it effectively did not have a
         | negative externality. The tree did not make a sound if no one
         | heard it.
         | 
         | This is the same thought that is used to justify not letting
         | cashiers sit while they bag groceries. Those who think this
         | love the taste of boots in their mouth.
         | 
         | I hope that they fire those who refuse to get with the times on
         | AI and embrace ludditism, and I hope your wife considers her
         | future with you after the economic ruin that such practices
         | will bring upon your family.
        
       | Retr0id wrote:
       | Does what it says on the tin, but honestly I find the
       | "uncorrected" video more comfortable to watch.
        
         | karlgkk wrote:
         | There are other implementations that do a better job, such as
         | Apple and Google's. They also are less willing to correct eye
         | contact when it's "out of range" so to speak.
        
         | hanniabu wrote:
         | I think it's the lack of subtle movement, it's too strict and
         | really locks the pupils front and center
        
           | lloeki wrote:
           | You mean frequent saccades?
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:This_shows_a_recording_of.
           | ..
           | 
           | or the occasional look away? (for which there appears to be a
           | feature for that)
           | 
           | > Look Away: enable_look_away helps create a more natural
           | look by allowing the eyes to look away randomly from the
           | camera when speaking
           | 
           | I expect both to be different: while saccades do happen when
           | occasionally looking _away_ from a person, they also happen
           | when looking _directly at_ one person because we don't
           | constantly stare at a very specific unique and precise point
           | on their face.
           | 
           | For the demo video, try enable_look_away = true,
           | look_away_offset_max = 10, look_away_interval_min = 1 and
           | look_away_interval_range = 1 (then submit), which from the
           | result I got should really be the default for a more natural
           | result.
        
         | ddfs123 wrote:
         | I think it's just that naturally nobody is keeping 100% eye
         | contact ( except maybe like TV news reporter ), it feels like
         | an interrogation.
        
           | XorNot wrote:
           | This is what I realized is uncomfortable about camera on
           | group meetings in teams - I can't mute _other people 's_
           | video, and so it feels intensely weird to have a wall of
           | people staring blankly at you.
        
             | RheingoldRiver wrote:
             | > I can't mute other people's video
             | 
             | you can switch to another tab, use a miniplayer, in some
             | apps u can focus one person's screen and if you choose
             | someone who has a static avatar up you'll barely see other
             | people's faces.
             | 
             | The nuclear option is to install PowerToys [0] and put
             | something always on top (im a fan of the hotkey
             | winkey+space to toggle always-on-top on and off) in the
             | exact position of the other video feeds. notepad or
             | something.
             | 
             | [0] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/
        
             | abdullahkhalids wrote:
             | This has been a feature since 2020 [1]. Similarly exists in
             | zoom now.
             | 
             | [1] https://answers.microsoft.com/en-
             | us/msteams/forum/all/featur...
        
             | prmoustache wrote:
             | You can totally turn off incoming video on msteams. What
             | you can't is have it as a default setting afaik.
        
         | mvoodarla wrote:
         | Original dev here. I tend to agree for this particular demo
         | video as I'm reading a book and I don't blink in the original.
         | 
         | The model tries to copy the blinks of the original video so
         | it's possible that in other conditions, you'd notice less of
         | this.
         | 
         | Fun to see this feedback though, definitely something worth
         | improving :)
        
           | mlhpdx wrote:
           | I likewise find the "corrections" uncanny. It's not just the
           | one with the book.
        
           | patrickhogan1 wrote:
           | BTW your main site is throwing an error. Probably want to
           | edit since your post is growing.
           | 
           | https://www.sievedata.com/
           | 
           | Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see
           | the browser console for more information).
        
             | mvoodarla wrote:
             | Original dev here. Unable to replicate this on my end, try
             | refreshing?
        
               | patrickhogan1 wrote:
               | Interesting. The issue occurs because I have WebGL
               | disabled, causing the createShader function you're using
               | to throw an error. You can reproduce this by going to
               | chrome://settings, disabling "Use hardware acceleration
               | when available," refreshing the page, and then triggering
               | the same error.
        
       | isuckatcoding wrote:
       | Cool but why...?
        
         | deepfriedchokes wrote:
         | Videoconferencing.
        
         | karlgkk wrote:
         | Apple does this on the iPhone, by default. When you're looking
         | at someone's face on FaceTime, it modifies the position of your
         | eyes to be looking directly at the camera - so the person on
         | the other end sees you looking at them.
        
           | s4i wrote:
           | Really? We FaceTime a lot with my wife and I keep telling her
           | that I can see her looking at her own face in the corner
           | instead or me. Is that tech accurate enough to tell that the
           | person is looking at themselves and not the other
           | participant, and then not correcting the eyes if that's the
           | case?
           | 
           | Anyway, I'd much prefer if Apple didn't silently alter the
           | eye direction of people calling me.
        
             | karlgkk wrote:
             | I think their adjustment is very minor and only happens
             | when you're looking directly at the camera. It's minor
             | enough that you've almost certainly seen it and not
             | noticed. She may have the setting disabled, or she may be
             | looking far enough away from the camera that it isn't
             | triggering.
        
       | richdougherty wrote:
       | Kudos to the dev for coming up with the eye position fixing
       | solution.
       | 
       | Building further on this idea, I wonder if instead of changing
       | the image to look at the camera, we could change the "camera" to
       | be where we're looking.
       | 
       | In other words we could simulate a virtual camera somewhere in
       | the screen, perhaps over the eyes of the person talking.
       | 
       | We could simulate a virtual camera by using the image of the real
       | camera (or cameras), constructing a 3D image of ourselves and re-
       | rendering it from the virtual camera location.
       | 
       | I think this would be really cool. It would be like there was a
       | camera in the centre of our screen. We could stop worrying about
       | looking at the camera and look at the person talking.
       | 
       | Of course this is all very tricky, but does feel possible right
       | now. I think the Apple Vision Pro might do something similar
       | already?
        
         | mvoodarla wrote:
         | This is an interesting idea. We are a little farther off from
         | being able to do this but agree it would look really cool.
        
         | scotty79 wrote:
         | I think you'd get a lot by just transforming eyes so the gaze
         | is relative to the virtual camera located on the screen at the
         | place of the face of a person you are talking to. This way you
         | get eye contact only when you are looking on their face on the
         | screen, but not when you look somewhere else.
        
         | newaccount74 wrote:
         | There is already a lot of research on the 3D reconstruction and
         | camera movement part, for example this SIGGRAPH 2023 paper:
         | https://research.nvidia.com/labs/nxp/lp3d/
         | 
         | In order for this to work for gaze correction, you'd probably
         | need to take into consideration the location of the camera
         | relative to the location of the eyes of the person on the
         | screen, and then correct for how the other person is holding
         | the phone, and it would probably only work for one-on-one
         | calls. Probably need to know the geometry of the phone (camera
         | parameters, screen size, position of camera relative to phone)
         | 
         | Would be amazing, not sure how realistic it is.
        
       | xnx wrote:
       | Nvidia has free Broadcast software with an eye contact feature:
       | https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/jan-2023-nvidia-br...
       | 
       | It's from January 2023, so I don't know if they've improved it
       | further since then.
       | 
       | The video conferencing software providers have been way to slow
       | to put whoever is speaking top-center (near where the camera
       | typically is).
        
         | zamadatix wrote:
         | They also release it as an SDK these days so you can use it
         | from tools like OBS https://www.nvidia.com/en-
         | us/geforce/broadcasting/broadcast-...
        
           | mvoodarla wrote:
           | Original dev here. That's right, NVIDIA has a version
           | available which we reference in our blog.
           | 
           | https://www.sievedata.com/blog/eye-contact-correction-
           | gaze-c...
           | 
           | Newer models have come out that allow the same thing to be
           | done and control even more than the eyes.
           | 
           | See here: https://github.com/KwaiVGI/LivePortrait/blob/main/a
           | ssets/doc...
           | 
           | For web-conferencing, local use is great so NVIDIA's tools
           | are what we recommend in that case.
        
             | eisenman wrote:
             | I appreciated using the Nvidia Tools for remapping webcam
             | eye-contact until I was reviewing a recording and noticed
             | that it changed my eye color. But it's been a bit. Perhaps
             | an undocumented feature that newer versions/models fixed.
        
           | Der_Einzige wrote:
           | Thank you very much!
           | 
           | - Signed, everyone whose currently trying to cheat on
           | interviews that think that forcing peoples videos on does
           | anything at all to keep them honest.
        
         | EasyMark wrote:
         | That is so creepy. I put the app up top center just under my
         | camera (or whatever window I'm looking at and the focuses my
         | eyes close enough to the camera to look like I'm talking at you
         | (on the other side). I don't want some software interpolating
         | my eye contact. Maybe I'm just ancient at 40 and easily creeped
         | out by such things. The concept reminds of me of those
         | paintings that seem to always be staring at you no matter the
         | angle.
        
       | boiler_up800 wrote:
       | Looks really good and seems fast. My guess would be that this
       | effect needs to be 99% or else people will notice something /
       | although they may not be sure exactly what.
        
       | thekevan wrote:
       | From a development standpoint, this is cool.
       | 
       | But the resultant video has a tad bit of uncanny valley going on.
       | 
       | I'd rather learn from the guy on the right.
        
         | mvoodarla wrote:
         | Original dev here. Agree this video looks like uncanny valley
         | but it's likely because the lighting of the original video is
         | off + I baggy eyes (I was sleep deprived).
         | 
         | Would recommend trying it on other videos, it is surprisingly
         | good. Although there definitely are areas to improve.
        
       | jpeggtulsa wrote:
       | 10 cents per minute of video... Pass.
        
       | albert_e wrote:
       | Practically --
       | 
       | I feel hardware technology can improve further to allow under-
       | the-LED-display cameras .... so that we can actually look at both
       | the camera and the screen at the same time.
       | 
       | (There are fingerprint sensors under mobile screens now ...and I
       | think even some front facing cameras are being built in without
       | sacrificing a punch hole / pixels. There is scope to make this
       | better and seamless so we can have multiple cameras if we want
       | behind a typical laptop screen or desktop monitor.)
       | 
       | This would make for a genuine look-at-the-camera video whether we
       | are looking at other attendees in a meeting or reading off our
       | slide notes (teleprompter style).
       | 
       | There would be no need to fake it.
       | 
       | More philosophically --
       | 
       | I don't quite like the normalization of AI tampering with actual
       | videos and photos casually -- on mobile phone cameras or
       | elsewhere. Cameras are supposed to capture reality by default. I
       | know there is already heavy noise reduction, color correction,
       | auto exposure etc ... but no need to use that to justify more
       | tampering with individual facial features and expressions.
       | 
       | Videos are and will be used for recording humans as they are. The
       | capturing of their genuine features and expressions should be
       | valued more. Video should help people bond as people with as
       | genuine body lanuage as possible. Videos will be used as memories
       | of people bygone. Videos will be used as forensic or crime scene
       | evidence.
       | 
       | Let us protect the current state of video capture. All AI
       | enhancements should be marketed separately under a different
       | name, not silently added into existing cameras.
        
         | yieldcrv wrote:
         | Or buy a specialty device for replicating the real world
         | 
         | Its been half a decade already from when I first noticed
         | iphones cant capture a red world when wild fires are messing up
         | the air quality, had to break out an ILC (DSLR without the SLR)
         | to capture the world more congruently to how I see
        
           | lloeki wrote:
           | > iphones cant capture a red world when wild fires are
           | messing up the air quality
           | 
           | s/iPhones/the iPhone Camera.app/
           | 
           | Apps like Halide and Pro Camera have no trouble handing you
           | over control of white balance. I've captured both faint
           | aurora borealis and red/brown hue when sand and dust is
           | brought over to inland Europe by scirocco with great success.
        
         | jrussino wrote:
         | I agree with your philosophical stance, in general, but this
         | particular use case is one that I've been wanting for years and
         | where I think altering the image can be in some ways more
         | "honest" than showing the raw camera feed.
         | 
         | With an unfiltered camera, it looks like I'm making eye contact
         | with you when I'm actually looking directly at my camera, and
         | likewise it looks like I'm staring off to the side when I'm
         | looking directly at your image in my screen.
         | 
         | A camera centered behind my screen might be marginally better
         | in that regard, but it still wouldn't look quite right.
         | 
         | What I'd really like to see is a filter for video conferencing
         | that is aware of the position of your image on my screen, and
         | modifies the angle of my face and eyes to more closely match
         | what you would actually see from that perspective (e.g. it
         | would look like I'm making direct eye contact when I'm looking
         | at/near the position of your eyes on my screen).
         | 
         | You could imagine this working even for multiple users, where I
         | might be paying attention to one participant or another, and
         | each of their views of me would be updated so that the one I'm
         | paying attention to can tell I'm looking directly at them, and
         | the others know I'm not looking directly at them in that
         | moment.
        
           | wruza wrote:
           | Would be funny if everyone on your screen gave a side eye to
           | the bottom right corner where the currently speaking person
           | is.
           | 
           | Jokes aside, I think you're absolutely right. Online
           | interactions have dynamic geometry, so mounting a camera
           | behind a screen will just not cut it, unless the entire
           | screen is a camera. Also, some people might prefer
           | projecting/receiving no eye contact at all, at times, in
           | situations. And vice versa.
           | 
           | Philosophical stance here is purely traditionalist, it
           | decides on behalf of people. What people would like to use,
           | that should exist. "Videos are and will" is a strange claim,
           | assuming its claimer has neither control over it nor any sort
           | of affirmation that it is going to be true.
        
             | albert_e wrote:
             | Once we have technology to put a camera under a screen
             | without sacrificing display quality ... we will not stop at
             | one camera.
             | 
             | There will be an array of cameras covering say every 2x2
             | inch square of your screen.
             | 
             | Just see how many cameras are on todays phones. Same can
             | happen with new camera tech too.
             | 
             | Also there will be a huge commercial driver to put multiple
             | cameras under the screen -- all apps and marketers can
             | track your precise gaze. Ads will pause unless you are
             | actually watching them. I will hate it but it feels
             | inevitable.
        
               | iwontberude wrote:
               | If that happened I would become a drastically different
               | person because no one may control people's bodies like
               | that except for themselves. God that really made me angry
               | to read. I really really hope you are wrong.
        
               | silver_silver wrote:
               | Ads already pause if you switch apps on mobile, and
               | vending machines/retail screens have had cameras in them
               | for expression/attention tracking for years. It's not
               | much of a leap from there
        
           | hammock wrote:
           | "Eye contact" is not a monolith though. Typically we look at
           | someone's eyes when we are speaking but their mouth when they
           | are speaking. And eye contact can be a pattern of crossing
           | between their left and right eyes. And making and breaking
           | eye contact are important parts of nonverbal communication.
           | The typical AI "eye contact correction" will do none of this.
        
             | redwall_hp wrote:
             | It's also extremely culturally dependent. (Never mind that
             | plenty of people in countries that obsess over eye contact
             | find it uncomfortable as well.)
             | 
             | It's generally considered rude or an act of intimidation to
             | maintain eye contact with people in Japan, for example. Not
             | nodding occasionally while someone is talking is also seen
             | as a sign that you're not paying attention. Are we going to
             | modify videos to nod automatically too? Or maybe we can
             | stop trying to fake social interactions and enforcing local
             | customs on the world.
        
         | aitchnyu wrote:
         | Will we have video with sensor signature for evidence purposes?
         | One high court in India rejected any video evidence as a
         | potential deepfake.
        
           | prmoustache wrote:
           | > One high court in India rejected any video evidence as a
           | potential deepfake.
           | 
           | Well I would have expected any court would have stopped
           | accepting audio and video as evidence by now.
        
             | agos wrote:
             | that would be a lot of baby throwing along the bathwater
        
               | ballenf wrote:
               | Similar to how hearsay evidence is thrown out, despite it
               | potentially having substantial value. Court is exactly
               | the place you want to throw out the baby with the
               | bathwater.
        
             | JohnFen wrote:
             | All I know is that I personally have stopped giving audio
             | and video any benefit of the doubt. I think it's risky to
             | accept any recording as representative of truth unless you
             | or someone you trust was there at the time of the recording
             | to vouch for its correctness.
        
           | aspenmayer wrote:
           | There are emerging standards for this.
           | 
           | https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/15/24271083/youtube-c2pa-
           | ca...
        
             | sharpshadow wrote:
             | So one could upload the original footage directly to
             | YouTube to get the authenticity label and put it on private
             | then proceed with the usual edits and provide the link to
             | the private video as prove that it's real.
        
               | aspenmayer wrote:
               | Presumably that would break the chain of custody
               | metadata, or would leave provenance breadcrumbs leading
               | back to the original unedited video?
               | 
               | https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/15446725?hl=en
               | 
               | > Limitations
               | 
               | > "Captured with a camera" only appears if a creator opts
               | to use C2PA technology during filming. If it's missing,
               | it doesn't mean the content has modified audio or
               | visuals.
               | 
               | > Note: This feature is separate from our existing
               | altered and synthetic disclosures.
               | 
               | > The metadata that leads to a "Captured with a camera"
               | disclosure is made by a 3rd party (for example, a camera
               | manufacturer). This means there is some risk that someone
               | could take a photo of another screen showing synthetic
               | content. Because the other screen shows an image that has
               | been modified, it wouldn't be eligible for the "Captured
               | with a camera" disclosure. This issue is called "air-
               | gapping." Camera manufacturers will continue to develop
               | detection measures to prevent "air-gapping," but the
               | sophistication of those detection measures may vary in
               | the near term.
               | 
               | https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-gen-ai-content-
               | tran...
        
         | sadcherry wrote:
         | > Videos are and will be used for recording humans as they are.
         | The capturing of their genuine features and expressions should
         | be valued more.
         | 
         | Controversial stance, but for the same reason I reject wearing
         | makeup.
         | 
         | Girls, you are beautiful as you are! No need to fake it! Most
         | guys don't do that either and everybody is perfectly fine with
         | that too.
        
           | irjustin wrote:
           | The line is very long and blurry the whole way. The extremes
           | are completely naked 100% of the time with zero grooming and
           | the opposite is eugenics or genetic engineering body/facial
           | features (is what i've come to believe?).
           | 
           | Isn't it okay to feel good about looking good, sure (i love
           | dressing up and doing my hair for occasions)! but obviously
           | that can turn very problematic very fast. Honestly, I wish I
           | knew where to draw the line in the sand. Is it makeup?
           | piercings? nice clothes? surgery?
           | 
           | Just a parent with two daughters who has more questions than
           | answers.
        
             | InDubioProRubio wrote:
             | Surgery is permanent, life-long change- beauty, is relevant
             | for 20years+
        
             | ddingus wrote:
             | What we did was draw the line at anything that might close
             | a door in life they may prefer remain open.
             | 
             | Messing with hair in our youth is fun and it grows back. No
             | worries.
             | 
             | Modest piercings society does not frown on. . No tattoos
             | and especially none on the face, hands, etc...
             | 
             | We had boys and girls and it went OK. Not too much
             | complaining and when they became adults, we handed them the
             | keys and wished them well and help where and how we can.
             | 
             | Maybe our experiences help with understanding yours.
        
           | HeatrayEnjoyer wrote:
           | Please, please, tell me this is sarcasm.
        
             | master-lincoln wrote:
             | I don't think it was. And I agree: make up is like putting
             | a mask on to hide who you really are because society taught
             | you that you are more valuable this way. People might think
             | they do this for themselves, but it has been put into their
             | mind by media and adverts. This is not healthy and also
             | wasted resources.
        
               | botanical76 wrote:
               | I partially agree with this, but at the same time... I
               | don't feel that shunning the use of makeup and telling
               | people their preferences are actually a result of
               | societal brainwash is a good solution.
               | 
               | If the problem is that society (in bubble X, Y or Z)
               | teaches us our value is judged solely based on our
               | appearance, then we should address the lessons we teach.
               | I feel it is unproductive to play whac-a-mole with the
               | emergent symptoms of such an underlying problem.
        
           | ndndjdjdn wrote:
           | Next up. Stop taking showers people!
        
             | master-lincoln wrote:
             | How is this a fair comparison? There are health benefits to
             | hygiene, there are none from make-up
        
               | wruza wrote:
               | Yeah, looks don't get you anywhere in this world as a
               | woman. /s
               | 
               | ...We may talk all day how bad and unfair that is, but
               | none of that changes the reality for an average person
               | out there.
        
               | Mountain_Skies wrote:
               | What it really does is create an arms race within women,
               | where those who opt out, with a few exceptions, are at a
               | disadvantage to those who continue on and escalate. As a
               | group, it would be a quality-of-life improvement for
               | most, if they as a group ended the arms race but since
               | there's no way for the group to enforce that, the arms
               | race continues, with social media and technique videos
               | advancing the front even further. For some the cost of
               | participating in war becomes more expensive than the
               | downsides, so they opt out and simply live with the
               | disadvantage.
        
               | hgomersall wrote:
               | I'm not sure there are any established health benefits of
               | showering routinely. Cleaning in response to
               | contamination, sure, but every day with lots of soap etc
               | I'm more sceptical of.
        
               | genrilz wrote:
               | This is actually probably more fair of a comparison then
               | you'd think. Daily showers are bad for health your
               | health[0], but I absolutely do them because my body
               | produces a lot of oil and odor. This is a cosmetic reason
               | similar to make-up.
               | 
               | [0]: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/showering-daily-
               | is-it-ne...
        
               | master-lincoln wrote:
               | You said daily, nobody prior did. Once a month is
               | probably more beneficial than not at all...
        
               | genrilz wrote:
               | I feel like we might have been reading the original
               | arguments in different ways, so let me summarize how I
               | see this thread:
               | 
               | I interpreted ndndjdjdn's comment as sarcasm. (due to the
               | use of the phrase "next up") That is, I think he was
               | saying that if you take sadcherry's logic to its limit,
               | then people wouldn't shower or would shower less.
               | sadcherry's logic is that people shouldn't wear make-up
               | because it cosmetic is not beneficial to health. Thus I
               | think ndndjdjdn was talking about the fact that people
               | use showers for cosmetic reasons, and believes sadcherry
               | probably doesn't actually want people to shower less, and
               | so should probably rethink his views about make-up.
               | 
               | You then posted your comment, saying that the health
               | benefits of showers justify them even if they do have
               | cosmetic benefits.
               | 
               | I then comment, saying that I shower in a way that is bad
               | for my health because of cosmetic reasons. I wanted to
               | imply that a lot of people shower like this, and therefor
               | the fact that moderate showers might have some health
               | benefits is irrelevant, because the way many/most people
               | shower is actually unhealthy. I probably should have been
               | more explicit about the fact that I thought many/most
               | other people shower in unhealthy ways.
               | 
               | As an aside, I don't actually know of any concrete
               | benefits to health besides making sure open wounds don't
               | get infected. I tried to search the web for other
               | benefits, and the only additional ones I got are
               | exfoliation (which is cosmetic) and relaxation. (but
               | relaxing things aren't generally classified as "healthy")
               | With that in mind, I tend to believe the health benefits
               | of showers are probably pretty over-hyped, (though not
               | non-existent) and more like a cultural fiction to keep
               | people showering than true knowledge.
               | 
               | I'd be interested to hear if you have a different take.
        
               | master-lincoln wrote:
               | I agree on this, I previously didn't interpret the
               | showering as a cosmetic action, but see that this line of
               | thought would make sense now.
               | 
               | To your aside of health benefits of showers: I also tried
               | to research this, but other than getting rid of
               | contamination (hazardous elements e.g. during
               | construction or demolishing, or just dirt on wounds) I
               | couldn't find any serious claim that washing the skin is
               | beneficial for health (outside of making sure hands are
               | clean before touching food or mucous membranes), I just
               | assumed there should be one.
               | 
               | I take my confident stance on this back...
        
               | sadcherry wrote:
               | There are parts of my body which, if not cleaned daily,
               | will stink uncomfortably. Harvard webpage or not.
               | 
               | I'd equate perfuming it over to make-up, not showering..
               | 
               | It's also quite sad that a statement "we should put less
               | make-up on" is immediately drifting into a discussion
               | about not showering. Way to ridicule a viewpoint.
        
             | sadcherry wrote:
             | Guys who equate stopping to spend 30+ minutes a day
             | painting your face with stopping to shower are part of the
             | problem.
             | 
             | It's exactly those unnatural expectations of looks that are
             | put on women, starting at a really young age, that are the
             | issue here. Not boys, just girls. It skews expectations and
             | boom, everybody feels like they have to do it. It's very
             | sad. I'm not saying don't shower, don't cut or even brush
             | your hair, etc. All fine. But the full-on makeup you see
             | walking through a random city in the morning, geez, what
             | are we doing to ourselves. And what are the guys doing?
             | Nothing close to it, but spend a lot of time justifying it.
        
           | exitb wrote:
           | Makeup is a personal preference. What OP talked about is
           | subtly and transparently putting AI in a pipeline where we
           | don't expect it. And it's not hypothetical, rather it already
           | happens. Video meeting software is doing all kinds of sound
           | rejection based on an unknown set of rules, even though none
           | of us enabled that as a feature.
        
             | tomooot wrote:
             | It took me a couple of years to notice the "beautify"
             | filter on my samsung S7 as I only ever activated the screen
             | side camera by accident. When I did eventually use it a
             | bit, I subconsciously knew something was off but assumed it
             | was just spec differences between the two sensors and
             | lenses, but then I noticed the "eyeball star twinkle" and
             | realised what was up.
             | 
             | On closer inspection it turns out it was actually smoothing
             | my hair and boosting the contrast so I looked like I had
             | dyed "highlights", along with airbrushing my cheeks a flat
             | orangey coloured skin tone with a rosy center, as if I were
             | wearing foundation and blusher!
        
             | beeflet wrote:
             | > Video meeting software is doing all kinds of sound
             | rejection based on an unknown set of rules, even though
             | none of us enabled that as a feature.
             | 
             | It's optional on discord. Besides, it's conceivable that
             | you might create a similar effect with a nice audio
             | hardware setup
        
           | voidUpdate wrote:
           | Guys, you don't need to modify cars ever! They're fine as
           | they are!
        
             | DidYaWipe wrote:
             | Are you seriously advancing that as a valid comparison?
        
               | voidUpdate wrote:
               | Yes
        
             | sadcherry wrote:
             | If guys do that to adhere to societal norms, then thats
             | equally sad.
        
           | JohnFen wrote:
           | I fundamentally agree with you, but I wanted to mention the
           | most common reaction I've got from women when discussing this
           | topic: women mostly don't put on makeup for the benefit of
           | men. It has more to do with societal expectation, setting
           | social status with other women, and very often that they like
           | that it's a mask.
        
           | botanical76 wrote:
           | I think the only case where a woman's use of makeup can be
           | considered fake is when she lies about using it.
           | 
           | Otherwise, it is just another way humans choose to dress
           | their external appearance for their own pleasure, fulfilment
           | and social intentions. It's not as if it's hard to tell when
           | someone is wearing makeup - that is, at least when you're
           | close enough to be able to inspect their imperfections at
           | all.
           | 
           | It seems to me that this idea about makeup being 'fake' stems
           | from heteronormative dating, where a man may feel he is
           | unable to properly assess a woman's beauty (and her
           | attractiveness to him) if her face has been changed in
           | arbitrary ways. But personally, I don't think we should
           | optimize all human encounters for dating efficiency. More
           | broadly, there is no social contract which stipulates you
           | must wield your natural appearance at all times. I think we
           | need not add more social expectations to an already long
           | list.
        
             | sadcherry wrote:
             | The pure fact that there is an asymmetry between men and
             | women w.r.t. makeup renders your argument void.
        
         | YeahThisIsMe wrote:
         | I agree with this.
         | 
         | I don't actually want the person I'm talking to to appear to be
         | looking directly into my eyes because it's weird - it means
         | they're looking at the camera and not at me on the screen,
         | talking to them.
        
           | smeej wrote:
           | Somehow I've apparently made a different adjustment to this
           | than most people. My therapist was commenting on it the other
           | day, how I do look directly into the camera when I want her
           | to see me as making "eye contact," rather than looking
           | directly at where _I_ see her eyes.
           | 
           | She's taking this as an autistic adaptation NT people are
           | less likely to make, like my gestures are practiced and
           | tailored for the sake of the other, not my own sake. I want
           | to "look in her eyes" to make a point, because that's one of
           | the ways you show people you're making an important point,
           | not to see how she's responding to what I'm saying.
           | 
           | I haven't done any of it on purpose. It's apparently just how
           | I've adapted to the weird communication space of having a gap
           | between actually looking at someone's eyes and being _seen_
           | to be looking at someone 's eyes.
        
             | Iku_Tri wrote:
             | I don't want to be mean to your therapist, but really?
             | 
             | Understanding camera eyelines counts as autistic now?
             | 
             | You're fine doing that. Sorry, but that comment she made
             | really sent me.
             | 
             | Reminds me of how the film department forced the digital
             | artists to take a Cinematography and lighting classed irl
             | so their final project renders would improve.
        
               | smeej wrote:
               | It might be one thing if I had done it on purpose,
               | because I was thinking about camera eyelines. But it
               | wasn't deliberate. I subconsciously choose based on how
               | another person will see me, because I don't really expect
               | to get a whole lot of information from seeing _them._
               | Something about this being a type of  "masking" in
               | autistic women, trying harder to get my social cues
               | across to others, but not expecting myself to receive
               | them.
               | 
               | I think maybe I have "trauma masquerading as ASD,"
               | because the symptoms are subjectively improving as I
               | learn to down-regulate my nervous system, but then I
               | don't much care what label gets put on _why_ I 'm weird.
               | I'm much more interested in figuring out what to do with
               | the different _ways_ I 'm weird. I'm old enough that I
               | can't think of ways formal diagnosis would _help_ me, so
               | I 'd rather assume each challenge is treatable until I
               | find out that it isn't.
        
           | mannykannot wrote:
           | Indeed - intense eye contact can be unsettling, even without
           | the additional information gleaned from knowing that the
           | other party has chosen to look at the camera.
           | 
           | Eye contact is a subtle and important dynamic in human
           | interaction (to the point where it has been suggested that we
           | have white sclera, while our closest ape cousins do not, as
           | an adaptation in support of easily detecting eye contact.) In
           | a meeting, that includes third parties seeing who is making
           | eye contact with whom.
           | 
           | The systems being discussed here are too simple to restore
           | this natural dynamic, and it is not clear to me that always-
           | on eye contact correction[1] is free of unintended and
           | undesirable consequences - for example, in some
           | circumstances, it might ramp up the tension in a discussion,
           | or it might help someone who is dissembling.
           | 
           | [1] Even with random look-aways, I suspect - in actual
           | conversation, look-aways are often correlated with what's
           | going on in the discussion.
        
           | boneitis wrote:
           | > because it's weird
           | 
           | I don't get many opportunities to express my exasperation
           | with the paradigm of the youtube content creator's thousand
           | video cuts per spoken sentence, but hell, in the same way, I
           | think it's just $#@%ing weird.
        
         | TowerTall wrote:
         | > under-the-LED-display cameras
         | 
         | If people laugh with their mouths open, wouldn't a camera
         | placed below the LED display capture the inside of their
         | mouths, and the rest of the time just point straight up their
         | noses?
        
           | albert_e wrote:
           | I meant the camera will be invisible and BEHIND the screen
           | .... just not visible as a punch hole/notch.
           | 
           | I think some mobile phones have already done this...where
           | they are able to put a camera behind the pixels.
        
         | vitorsr wrote:
         | > I know there is already heavy noise reduction, color
         | correction, auto exposure etc ... but no need to use that to
         | justify more tampering with individual facial features and
         | expressions.
         | 
         | Critically, the enumerated computational processing units are
         | global transformations, while tampering is inherently a local,
         | "contentful" transformation.
        
           | jMyles wrote:
           | > the enumerated computational processing units are global
           | transformations, while tampering is inherently a local,
           | "contentful" transformation.
           | 
           | This is a brilliant way to examine / explain the distinction.
        
         | xattt wrote:
         | I always thought that under-screen cameras would come as a bug-
         | eye lens, with the sensors between pixels. The pitch of modern
         | mini-LED displays seems to have enough space between pixels to
         | fit them in.
        
         | IanCal wrote:
         | I get the general philosophical point but to take a fun
         | counterargument - cameras don't record the moment. They record
         | a very narrow snapshot in time. One you, or anyone around you,
         | may not recognise.
         | 
         | Have you ever looked at a group of friends and thought "ONE OF
         | YOU IS BLINKING"? No. Yet it's quite common to have a photo
         | where at least one person is mid-blink. The 30-year lifespan of
         | that photo includes the milliseconds they were blinking. Is it
         | _untrue_ to have a picture where two people were not blinking
         | and standing side by side? They did in real life, in those same
         | poses, but fractions of a second apart. Is it a failure to
         | capture reality by having a picture of them with their eyes
         | open? Maybe - or maybe the blending of several moments is more
         | true to the original situation than any specific snapshot could
         | be.
         | 
         | > I feel hardware technology can improve further to allow
         | under-the-LED-display cameras .... so that we can actually look
         | at both the camera and the screen at the same time.
         | 
         | That doesn't fully solve the problem because you'd be looking
         | at the middle of the screen not at the person talking to you in
         | a group.
         | 
         | > Video should help people bond as people with as genuine body
         | lanuage as possible.
         | 
         | I agree, but having people be able to actually look at each
         | other is surely part of this.
        
           | albert_e wrote:
           | > That doesn't fully solve the problem because you'd be
           | looking at the middle of the screen not at the person talking
           | to you in a group.
           | 
           | Repeating my comment on a sibling ...
           | 
           | Once we have technology to put a camera under a screen
           | without sacrificing display quality ... we will not stop at
           | one camera. There will be an array of cameras covering say
           | every 2x2 inch square of your screen.
           | 
           | Just see how many cameras are on todays phones. Same can
           | happen with new camera tech too.
           | 
           | Also there will be a huge commercial driver to put multiple
           | cameras under the screen -- all apps and marketers can track
           | your precise gaze. Ads will pause unless you are actually
           | watching them. I will hate it but it feels inevitable
        
             | vlovich123 wrote:
             | Honestly I'll take the software correction approach. Seems
             | cheaper. I'll also challenge about whether people actually
             | care about the philosophical position about live editing.
             | Zoom filters to ade makeup and other realtime and non
             | realtime filters are popular. Movies have special effects.
             | I think this purism isn't helpful given what it seems that
             | people actually want, not to mention that the concept of
             | "true image" is so tenuous (eg no picture of the aurora
             | borealis or the Milky Way is actually what your eye would
             | see).
        
           | ballenf wrote:
           | Artwork can be more true to reality than a photograph.
        
           | JohnFen wrote:
           | > cameras don't record the moment. They record a very narrow
           | snapshot in time.
           | 
           | Isn't a "moment" a very narrow snapshot in time by
           | definition?
        
             | wizzwizz4 wrote:
             | Colloquially, "the moment" also includes the context, both
             | immediate and general.
        
         | mikae1 wrote:
         | _> I feel hardware technology can improve further to allow
         | under-the-LED-display cameras_
         | 
         | Everything but your smartphone is big enough that you'd to
         | sprinkle your entire screen area with sensors to get the sense
         | of me looking at you. And, _that_ won 't be cheap.
         | 
         | Say my laptop had a sensor dead center and I was in a group
         | chat. Only the person dead center would see me looking to the
         | camera.
         | 
         | This is better done in software.
        
         | JohnFen wrote:
         | > I don't quite like the normalization of AI tampering with
         | actual videos and photos casually -- on mobile phone cameras or
         | elsewhere.
         | 
         | I agree. This is one of the things that I actively worry about.
        
         | taeric wrote:
         | Beam splitting is a thing. Elgato has a lowish cost one that
         | works quite well.
        
         | renewiltord wrote:
         | The really sad thing is that we take raw sensor data and
         | process it at all. People are so out of touch with things these
         | days we use lenses to focus the picture etc. Why not just
         | transmit the raw sensor data instead of processing everything
         | so much? People could just use their minds (I know, ridiculous
         | to ask people to do that in this era where everything is spoon
         | fed to you) and actually interpret things for once.
         | 
         | What a society! Processed food, plastics in their blood,
         | processed sensor data. Ugh, we have strayed so far from natural
         | interactions.
         | 
         | Philosophically we have abandoned being mindful of where we
         | are, and just being our natural forms instead of being slaves
         | to what some computer is telling you that you should be seeing.
        
         | jpicard wrote:
         | Here's a webcam that has a small arm that drops down placing
         | the sensor in front of the screen. It blocks a little bit of
         | the screen, but allows more eye contact, without using AI to
         | modify eyes.
         | 
         | https://icontactcamera.com/
        
       | not_a_bot_4sho wrote:
       | I've never seen an implementation of this that wasn't super
       | creepy past the initial tech demo
        
         | lelandfe wrote:
         | iOS Facetime quietly does this by default, I don't notice it
        
         | Applejinx wrote:
         | I put a monitor screen behind my camera for video-making,
         | adjusted so the eyes are just barely showing over the camera.
         | Then, when my eyes are drawn to me on the screen, I'm looking
         | at the camera (just over it) which works pretty well. The eye
         | contact is pretty good, but I can look away or around all I
         | want: I'll just tend to be drawn to 'display of eyes' so I'm
         | hacking that instinct to make better videos.
         | 
         | That said, plenty of people don't make eye contact with the
         | camera much at all :)
        
       | throwaway290 wrote:
       | I would pay for the opposite.
        
       | advisedwang wrote:
       | This is the real killer feature of Google's project starline,
       | although they also achieve a 3D display.
        
       | AyyEye wrote:
       | Only a techbro would think that "eye contact" means just
       | synthesizing eyes. It's a high bandwidth communication medium and
       | synthesizing it removes what little we had. Yes I know this isn't
       | the first, no I don't think any of this reality-meddling is any
       | less creepy.
        
       | patrickhogan1 wrote:
       | Really cool application.
       | 
       | Just a heads up - your main website is showing an error. You
       | might want to fix it since your post is gaining traction. Here's
       | the link: https://www.sievedata.com/
       | 
       | The error message reads: 'Application error: a client-side
       | exception has occurred (check the browser console for more
       | details).'
        
         | mvoodarla wrote:
         | Original dev here. Unable to replicate this on my end, try
         | refreshing?
        
           | patrickhogan1 wrote:
           | Interesting. The issue occurs because I have WebGL disabled,
           | causing the createShader function you're using to throw an
           | error. You can reproduce this by going to chrome://settings,
           | disabling "Use hardware acceleration when available,"
           | refreshing the page, and then triggering the same error.
           | 
           | Sorry for duplicate post. Also this feature is enabled by
           | default, but causes issues with several sites.
        
       | ta8645 wrote:
       | Great. Now, do the rest of me sitting in the seat. If you don't
       | need my real eyes, you don't need any of the real me. We can
       | discuss, whatever it is, in email.
        
       | Bengalilol wrote:
       | I, for some reason, prefer the original video. I may have an eye
       | contact problem. Otherwise, the feature is nice and almost
       | perfect: there could be some spaces where eye contact shouldn't
       | be always on, I bet this would make it more human.
        
       | DidYaWipe wrote:
       | Creepy and misguided. Do people stare at you fixedly and
       | unwaveringly during in-person conversations?
       | 
       | And if they do, do you like it?
        
         | lloeki wrote:
         | > Look Away: enable_look_away helps create a more natural look
         | by allowing the eyes to look away randomly from the camera when
         | speaking
         | 
         | For the demo video, try enable_look_away = true,
         | look_away_offset_max = 10, look_away_interval_min = 1 and
         | look_away_interval_range = 1 (then submit), which from the
         | result I got should really be the default for a more natural
         | result.
        
           | qwertox wrote:
           | Usually looking away is part of a gesture which involves the
           | context, like facial muscles and the information being shared
           | ("Hmm, when was this?": makes the eyes looks up)
        
           | dTal wrote:
           | Okay, these options are far enough down the slippery slope to
           | present a compelling argument that the whole thing is a Bad
           | Idea. Short hop from here to suppress_yawns=true, and then on
           | to enthusiasm_multiplier=1.4...
        
         | HKH2 wrote:
         | If you mean someone listening is actually staring (without
         | changing their facial expressions), then of course that's
         | weird, but if they are adjusting their facial expressions to
         | show reactions without looking away, what's wrong with that?
        
           | JohnFen wrote:
           | > if they are adjusting their facial expressions to show
           | reactions without looking away, what's wrong with that?
           | 
           | A whole lot. Even if they have varying facial expressions,
           | not looking away is creepy as hell because looking away
           | during conversations is actually an important aspect of the
           | communication. Not looking away is sending a nonverbal
           | message, and none of the usual ways that's interpreted are
           | positive.
        
       | blkhawk wrote:
       | During corona I build a fold down thing that put my webcam at
       | eye-level on my monitor. turns out with a large enough monitor it
       | really isn't that bad to have the camera in front of it.
        
         | drewbitt wrote:
         | There was a Kickstarter-esque product at the time that did this
         | too. Tiny camera that dangles down in front of the screen.
        
       | jedisct1 wrote:
       | Doesn't FaceTime already do that?
        
       | kleiba wrote:
       | It would be great to have a feature where my closed eyes are
       | replaced with open eyes looking at the camera - then I could
       | sleep through boring meetings.
        
         | chucksmash wrote:
         | > It would be great to have a feature where my closed eyes are
         | replaced with open eyes looking at the camera
         | 
         | There's already a feature that does this called HR
        
         | ClassyJacket wrote:
         | It's just a matter of time until half of us are having an LLM
         | deepfake voice clone of us attend "meetings" so we don't have
         | to.
        
       | boomskats wrote:
       | The thing with eye contact, though, is that it is worthless if
       | you are never able to look away. When it's artificial like this,
       | it's worse than not being there at all. It's just creepy. It was
       | the same with nvidia's implementation a couple of years ago. It
       | was just weird.
       | 
       | I do appreciate that this is a problem worth solving though, and
       | I spent a lot of my time during COVID worrying about the negative
       | impact that normalising loss of eye contact would have on the
       | social interactions of our younger generations.
       | 
       | Back in 2021, I took one of those PS50 teleprompter mirrors that
       | YouTubers use, put a 7in raspberry pi display in the slot where
       | you're meant to put your phone, and made it my 'work calls
       | display' for a couple of days. The interesting thing is that the
       | only people that noticed without me pointing it out were
       | completely non-technical, and when they did they complemented me
       | on the quality of my webcam rather than the fact I was looking
       | straight at them; they could tell something was better, but
       | couldn't quite put their finger on it. Which is funny because I'm
       | sure being stuck behind a cheap perspex one way mirror made my
       | actual camera quality a bit worse.
       | 
       | I remember I got to the point where I started playing with cv2
       | trying to do realtime facial landmark detection on the incoming
       | feed and having a helper process shift the incoming video window
       | around the little screen so that it would keep the bridge of the
       | other person's nose (the point I naturally made eye contact with)
       | pinned to the bit of the screen that was directly in front of the
       | webcam lens. Then one morning I walked into my office, saw this
       | monstrosity on my desk, realised I was nerd sniping myself and
       | gave up.
       | 
       | One thing I do remember though is how odd it felt looking at
       | yourself in a mirror without your image being mirrored. Not sure
       | my brain was ready for that one after thousands of years of
       | looking at itself in mirrored surfaces.
       | 
       | Bit of a weird pic but the only one I can find:
       | https://pasteboard.co/BXE6zhbpOD7E.jpg
        
         | blitzar wrote:
         | I wanted to do this but got stuck in the rabbit hole of picking
         | out telepromters, screens and sizes. In the end my solution was
         | to mount my webcam in the middle of the monitor (with the other
         | party partially obscured). Previously my technique was to look
         | at the camera not the screen (or have the other party in a very
         | small window at the top of my screen) so partially obscured is
         | an improvement!
        
         | lloeki wrote:
         | > One thing I do remember though is how odd it felt looking at
         | yourself in a mirror without your image being mirrored. Not
         | sure my brain was ready for that one after thousands of years
         | of looking at itself in mirrored surfaces.
         | 
         | Feynman has a good explanation for that:
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msN87y-iEx0
         | 
         | But it doesn't go deeper as to why we're perceiving ourselves
         | that way, for that we have to dive into biology, neurology,
         | bilateral symmetry, and the fundamentals as to how, as
         | bilaterally symmetric beings, we're able to orient ourselves in
         | a 3D world.
         | 
         | (I recall reading a paper or watching some video about that,
         | but can't find it anymore)
        
       | lemonad wrote:
       | I can definitely see the use case as it is annoying having to
       | choose between actively looking at participants of a meeting on
       | screen or _appear_ to look at the participants by gazing into the
       | camera and not actually looking at them.
       | 
       | I sometimes use an Elgato Prompter to better enable eye contact
       | during meetings. The camera and lens is mounted behind the screen
       | so looking at the screen is also looking at the participants. The
       | downside is that the screen is tiny and you leaning forward to
       | read, say, a document does not look that great on camera. So
       | either you have to zoom it substantially or read it on another
       | screen, thus looking away from the participants. In this case
       | though, you are not looking at the participants and faking that
       | eye contact in this case would be kind of weird.
        
         | asdff wrote:
         | Somehow the idea of everyone looking at the camera to wave
         | goodbye, while in the process only seeing the camera and not
         | the people you are trying to make virtual eye contact with, is
         | hilarious to me. Like some dystopian comedy.
        
       | jbverschoor wrote:
       | Isn't this built in FaceTime?
        
       | qwertox wrote:
       | Looks somewhat creepy.
       | 
       | The normal thing is not to uninterruptedly look at a person
       | (which the camera is supposed to be). For example when you make a
       | gesture of trying to remember something by looking somewhere
       | else.
        
         | 123pie123 wrote:
         | it's definately in the uncanny valley for me
         | 
         | he turns his head a little and his eyes look wrong
        
         | EasyMark wrote:
         | The creepy portrait that watches you no matter what part of the
         | room you observe it from. For example the two in this jpg
         | 
         | https://publish.purewow.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/...
        
       | nicholasbraker wrote:
       | I assumed this was a roadmapped feature on (at least) Facetime on
       | OSX/IOS. I never saw any implementation of it, but I see value in
       | such feature. Also for Teams etc.
        
         | theodorton wrote:
         | It's available in Settings > FaceTime > Eye Contact.
        
           | nicholasbraker wrote:
           | Thanx!
        
       | froh wrote:
       | wow that's creepy :-)
       | 
       | technically cool, however I'd rather prefer some semi transparent
       | mirror set up.
       | 
       | such a set up keeps the eyes alive.
        
         | rzzzt wrote:
         | DIY Perks has a build log on such an optics-based system:
         | https://youtu.be/2AecAXinars
        
       | kmfrk wrote:
       | We've come a long way from red eye correction.
       | 
       | I think it's great that this is labelled as "correction" as in a
       | means of optional postprocessing when it's convenient. Nvidia
       | implying that it's something we should enable by default rubs me
       | the wrong way, but then again, I don't spend my day stuck in
       | virtual meetings.
        
       | krosaen wrote:
       | This is really cool, glad to see someone making a real product
       | out of this - have seen demos in the past.
       | 
       | One thing I've always wondered is if this could be made to work
       | for group video chats - depending on the tile you are looking at,
       | that person would know, so you could tell who is paying attention
       | to you, or even exchange a furtive glance with a colleague in
       | reaction to someone else said like IRL. Even harder, but also
       | cool would be updating the gaze dynamically so you could tell
       | what they were looking at in your scene - say you have a
       | whiteboard behind you and you can tell when the person is making
       | eye contact with you vs looking at something you drew on the
       | board.
       | 
       | Original dev make it so! :)
        
       | Arch-TK wrote:
       | What is the modern obsession with video calls?
       | 
       | I have been working for a company which allowed full remote work
       | without any qualms since before COVID and nobody did video calls
       | back then. Since we end up on site in secure environments we also
       | just get told to disable the camera in the BIOS as part of our
       | laptop hardening.
       | 
       | For things like bi-annual meetings with your manager you would go
       | into your local office.
        
         | nonameiguess wrote:
         | I don't remotely get it, either. Most group calls I'm in
         | involve one person presenting something and we're watching
         | that, not each other. For things like a one-on-one call with my
         | manager, we just talk. Shit, sometimes we even talk on the
         | phone, but usually still a computer. He might be wearing no
         | pants for all I care. I usually have a cat on me and am
         | probably laying flat. If it's before 10 AM, because my wife
         | goes to work so late, she's probably walking around naked
         | behind me and nobody needs to be seeing that.
         | 
         | My company was also 100% remote from its start, even before
         | Covid.
         | 
         | As others have stated, it's also just unnerving to have people
         | making nonstop eye contact or staring at any part of your body
         | at all, even if it isn't your eyes. Maybe 90s Los Angeles was
         | an abnormally shitty place to grow up because of the gang
         | activity, but this is the kind of thing kids started fights
         | over all the time. Robert DeNiro's most famous movie scene is
         | about how threatening it feels to have someone looking at you.
         | 
         | This isn't even unique to humans. When you regularly interact
         | with animals, you're taught to look away and not hold direct
         | eye contact because they'll see it as a challenge or threat.
         | I've learned to do this with my own cats to make them more at
         | ease. You learn to blink, narrow your eyes, look to the side.
        
         | asdff wrote:
         | Not only that but the obsession with higher and higher
         | resolution video calls. Lets upgrade the laptop cams. No wait
         | lets use a mirrorless camera and a ring light. Meanwhile the
         | upload speed from your home isp is still early 2000s tier
         | speeds and zoom downsamples you to 144p.
        
         | schmichael wrote:
         | Also a fully remote company worker since pre-COVID, and I
         | vastly prefer calls with the video on. It's the norm at our
         | company. Facial expressions convey enormous amounts of
         | information. Also our team silently claps for people which is
         | admittedly quite silly but hey, we like it.
         | 
         | I'm rarely on calls without video, but when I am I find it
         | jarring when voices just appear out of the ether with only a
         | little flashing icon to indicate who it is I'm listening to.
         | 
         | To each their own!
        
           | fleischhauf wrote:
           | having worked with half a remote team from Poland which also
           | never turned the camera on I can tell you that faces provide
           | a lot better method of person disambiguation for Germans than
           | polish names. (no disrespect to the Polish language or
           | people, my lack of knowledge therof is to blame here)
        
         | EasyMark wrote:
         | It's bizarre, I recently had an interview where the 2 people
         | before and myself just did voice + coderpad over teams, no
         | video. Then the next person, also with no video requested I
         | open up my camera, I politely asked that they do the same if
         | were to do it and they refused, so I refused. They said the
         | interview was over. I was like fine, have a nice day to their
         | very rude ending of the interview. It's strange how people
         | expect to have all the power (or video?)in these situations.
         | The hiring manager called me later and got my side, then
         | apologized and asked if we could set up the 3rd interview with
         | another team member, but I politely declined and went on about
         | my day.
        
       | neveroddoreven wrote:
       | I wonder how soon we'll just be rendering real-time AI avatars of
       | ourselves that are traced by our facial movements. Don't have to
       | worry about fixing your hair or lighting or wearing nice clothes;
       | just render whatever looks most appealing with a model.
        
       | alexsmirnov wrote:
       | Some decades ago, I worked with professional photo artists. Some
       | did make photos for fashion magazines, one won "Word press photo"
       | award couple times. When they make portraits, one rule is to
       | always ask model to look slightly off the camera. As some
       | explained, it adds some "life" to portrait. So, the tool does
       | just the opposite to the art rules.
        
       | EasyMark wrote:
       | Pro-tip, put something interesting near wherever your camera is
       | and look at that. I usually put the window itself (or whatever
       | window is most interesting) up at the top center and that will
       | get your eyes close enough to emulate "eye-contact"
        
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