摘要 |
A teleconferencing system that allows for natural eye contact between conferees is provided. The system comprises two or more terminals which are connected to allow a teleconference to occur. Each terminal comprises a screen to display an image of the remote conferee and a video camera to transmit an image of the local conferee to the remote screen. The video camera is conveniently located above the screen, beyond the perimeter of the image. Microphones and speakers are also provided to allow the conferees to hear as well as speak to one another. Eye contact is provided, despite the mounting of the camera above eye level, by image manipulating the image of a conferee to remove any distortion caused by camera placement and to redirect the apparent direction of the conferee's gaze. Image manipulation can also simulate zooming, tilting and panning of the camera by expanding that portion of the camera field that frames the conferee to fill the entire screen and by keeping the conferee's image so centered in spite of movement by the conferee.
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