HACKER Q&A
📣 kerkeslager

Is there a camera that is aligned with a screen?


I was watching a YouTube video[1] where Trevor Noah, as a random aside about 42 seconds in, says something I thought was a great idea: a web camera that aligns with your screen, so that when you're video conferencing, you can look at the person you're talking to, and on the other end it looks like you're looking them in the eye.

I think this would make a big difference in people's lives, as eye contact is a pretty psychologically important way to connect with other human beings.

Does this already exist? Is anyone working on this?

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OC4CIfZ_1A

  👤 numpad0 Accepted Answer ✓
I don't think that's optically possible without either a teleprompter or a "punch-hole" display. "Teleprompter" sounds sophisticated but basically a pepper's ghost box for cameras, there are plenty of amateur YouTubers building it "in zero dollars from home waste" manners. Half-silvered glass or polarized filter is nice but not necessary from what I understand.

Somewhat tangentially, what I find from sudden rise in stay-home teleconferencing is that TV hosts as well as corporate teleconferencing users are almost completely clueless about teleconferencing compared to YouTubers and streamers, people think a superwide Logitech webcam and a laptop on your lap in a bathroom is all it takes. YouTubers run Sony Alphas all day with nice primes, some even REDs ARRIs, large dia condenser mics, Shure is entry-midrange there ... So a lot is there to learn from them, especially on budget.

👤 karmakaze
Yes, there's multiple ways of doing it. DIY-Perks has a webcam mod[0] using 2-way mirror.

The other way is using a microLED display. A microLED is so compact/bright that you can leave spaces between elements and can be 50% transparent or more looking from behind. Alternatively Optical/sensor elements could be interspersed with the microLED elements giving as good an image quality as can be achieved based on the area used.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AecAXinars

👤 speedgoose
The old Microsoft Surface 2, renamed later PixelSense when the Microsoft marketing department decided to launch a new product with the exact same name than an existing product, had a display which was an infrared camera. Each pixel was also an infrared light sensor.