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Comment by splitrocket | Hacker News Reader

This.

Video chat fails at providing an emotional connection because of this. It leaves you feeling like you are talking past someone. It's a fundamental problem with the technology that can't really be solved unless we literally put a camera in the middle of the screen.

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I believe Apple actually filed a patent for a screen with an embedded camera. I don't know how technologically/economically feasible it would be to actually make and integrate into devices.

Article: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/01/08/apple_files_pa...

Patent: http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Se...

There have been several attempts at solving this, including one by Microsoft[1] which involves putting a camera on either side of the screen and synthesizing a new image that allows eye contact.

[1] http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=6726...

It's not a guaranteed solution but for laughs I took some typical webcam headshots and made some very minor tweaks to the eyes (mostly iris position) that makes it look like direct eye contact. Given what apps like Word Lens are doing, I can't see why this couldn't become a built-in feature, much like head tracking has on some cameras.

Is this possible?

Stuck on the iPad so I'm not hunting a citation but yes, there was an article going around about a year ago of a prototype of such a screen.

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