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Comment by IncreasePosts | Hacker News Reader

What we really need for this is on-screen cameras, so you can actually look someone in the eye. Now, you only look them in the eye when you look away from them at the camera. And when you look them in the eye you're just looking at their mouth.

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Ultimately it will likely be easier to simulate eye-contact with live restyling – that is, synthesizing the view from a virtual 'camera' using one or more other cameras nearby – than physically hide a true camera inside a monitor. (Simulation could also signal eye-contact with any point on the screen, not just a single camera location.)

Nvidia, Apple, & others already have software for this, which will only get better.

We’ve needed this – easy, direct eye contact – for quite a long time. I keep waiting for someone to develop it. I think that Apple has a relevant patent, but I don’t know how much content is in the patent, and I’ve never heard that Apple has done anything with it.

Apple uses it for its Eye Contact feature in FaceTime

Apple applies a filter to make fake eye contact.

"filter" seems to downplay it

https://9to5mac.com/2019/07/03/facetime-eye-contact-correcti...

A guy on Youtube already built this... https://youtu.be/2AecAXinars?si=p42afAGJrUEsHedX

They're slowly coming to market:

https://www.androidauthority.com/under-display-selfie-camera...

The claim why these aren't adopted is that they aren't high enough quality. Why not include both a standard and undersceen front-facing camera and get the best of both worlds? Could use the under-screen camera for video chat and the standard one for everything else. Or even use some AI algorithm to merge the data from the standard camera with the under-screen one to increase quality.

People want quality selfies more than eye to eye calls

Did you read my comment? That's what I was proposing to address. By "standard camera" I meant the standard front facing camera that is high quality.

The other problem is that having an under-display camera doesn't stop everyone else's eyes from pointing in the wrong direction, so even if you prioritize eye contact you'd also have to convince all your friends to, as well.

OK but that's how regular humans work too.

I remember a Microsoft research paper that just digitally altered the iris and pupil to be facing towards the camera. I think this tech also exists in iPhones for FaceTime.

Ha for important meetings I look into the camera for this reason

Earliest expected release for an Under Display Camera (UDC) iPhone right now is iPhone 18 in 2026:

>According to The Elec, LG Innotek has entered the preliminary development of the UDC, which sits under the display and does not result in a visible hole in the panel when the camera is not in use...

>Apple will then adopt the UDC in 2027's "Pro" iPhone models, according to respected analyst Ross Young of research firm Display Supply Chain Consultant

https://www.macrumors.com/2023/12/06/iphone-under-display-ca...

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