I'm sure you've all seen videos of bloggers reading from a teleprompter, with their eyes darting back and forth, and you've also noticed the huge difference between when a person looks at the screen and when they look at the camera during a call.
Thanks to AI, both cases can now be converted into direct eye contact. Nvidia has released the Maxine project, which includes a feature to Maintain Eye Contact.
To make this work, you'll need to create a virtual camera using OBS (to take the signal from a regular camera and process it).
Steps:
1. Download the Maxine AR SDK from the link here (registration is required + they mention download issues from Russia).
2. Download and install OBS.
3. Select GazeRedirect App as your device.
4. Done! Now in Zoom (and other applications), just select the OBS device in the settings.
P.S. Unfortunately, it currently only works on Windows, as it requires supported NVIDIA GPUs, which Mac does not have in its list. (This is the second time this week I feel inadequate working on a Mac :( ) There seem to be alternatives, but they might not be of the same quality and some of them are paid:
1. https://www.4tiitoo.com/nuia-full-focus-for-eye-contact-in-video-calls
2. https://github.com/chihfanhsu/gaze_correction
3. https://casablanca.ai/