If you have a hard time focusing on zoom meetings or paying attention to your audience during live streams, then fear no more! Nvidia is here to save the day with the newest update to the Nvidia Broadcast software. It includes the new Eye Contact feature, which simulates eye contact with the camera when you’re looking away from it. It actually has some real-world applications besides just being distracted during virtual work meetings. Eye Contact is currently in beta and has been introduced with Nvidia Broadcast 1.4.0. About the effect, Nvidia says, “the eyes retain their natural colour and blinks”. This is to help ensure that the effect is sold to your audience as well as possible. There’s even a disconnect feature that, if you look too far away from the camera, transitions the direction of your eyes smoothly from the simulated eyes to your real eyes, so nobody’s ever the wiser.
Of course, this feature is not just for when you get bored in meetings. It has practical applications, too. Its primary use, Nvidia says, is as a tool for content creators that allows them to read a script just off-camera while still keeping their eyes pointed at the camera, creating better engagement with their audience. Even in video conferencing situations, if you have notes just off to one side of your screen, it’s going to keep your eyes trained on your subject to improve that one-to-one connection. Here’s a real-world demo of it.
It’s currently in Beta – and in some sections above, you can tell – and Nvidia is hoping to get people involved in order to improve it, as “there are millions of eye colours and lighting combinations” out there. They want to test as many of them as they can in order to make it better. If you want to help, you can send a video of your experience to Nvidia here. Despite the Eye Contact effect being in beta, it’s available now. All you have to do is download Nvidia Broadcast v1.4.0. The only requirement is that you have an Nvidia RTX GPU. You can find out more about the rest of the changes in Nvidia Broadcast v1.4.0 here. [via The Verge]