Nvidia Broadcast app to enhance video calls and live streams with AI-powered eye contact feature

Chip-maker Nvidia has released a new update to its video conferencing and live streaming tool, NVIDIA Broadcast, with the aim of solving an old video conferencing problem. The company's new Eye Contact feature estimates and changes the directional gaze of your eyes to make it seem as if you’re looking into the camera even when you’re not.

The effect should let viewers more easily maintain eye contact with the speaker in the video, and is designed for presenters who may be reading from a script while recording or streaming. To make the effect more natural, Nvidia suggests that Eye Contact will try to make the simulated eyes match the colour of the real ones, and there's “even a disconnect feature” to help with transitions between real and simulated eyes.

“The eyes retain their natural colour and blinks, and there’s even a disconnect feature in case you look too far away, to transition smoothly between simulated and real eyes. Broadcast continues its strong momentum with double the active users from the previous year. And over 20 partners have integrated Broadcast effects directly into their apps,” the company said in a statement.

Nvidia's version of the technology is still in beta as the company hasn't tested it for all combinations of eye colours and lighting conditions. The company is asking users to send video clips as feedback to help the AI-based system. The other primary new addition to Nvidia Broadcast is a vignette effect to improve virtual backgrounds by simulating bokeh depth of field.

The addition of the Eye Contact feature to Nvidia Broadcast could help content creators make more engaging presentations, and potentially make video calls more natural and comfortable. With the ability to simulate eye contact, presenters can maintain a more natural connection with their audience.

Interestingly, Nvidia isn't the first company to try and simulate eye contact in video calls or video conferencing. Apple added FaceTime Attention Correction with iOS 13 in 2019 to counteract the effect that occurs when users look at the screen instead of the camera during FaceTime calls, which ironically breaks eye contact between callers. Microsoft added similar functionality to the Surface Pro X in 2020, which works in multiple video calling apps like Microsoft Teams and Skype.

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