Have you ever seen a movie scene where the actor isn’t making eye contact with the camera? It’s an age-old problem, but now AI technology has come to the rescue! Over the past few years, a bunch of tools have been released that use AI to edit video calls in real time so that the caller is making eye contact with the camera. FaceTime, Microsoft Teams, and Nvidia Broadcast all offer this feature (provided you have the necessary hardware or software).
This technology has opened up a lot of interesting possibilities and questions. Is constant unbroken eye contact good or a bit creepy? Are these tools useful for people who don’t naturally like eye contact? Or is this all just the thin edge of a wedge labeled, for the sake of argument, “the increasing use of AI to create a more polished digital version of ourselves is contributing to an increased sense of alienation and loss of identity”?
But forget all that for now, because here’s the stupidest and best use case of this technology yet: editing movie scenes so actors make eye contact with the camera. Visual effects artist Gen Hashimoto has been experimenting with this tech, and the results are incredible. By connecting up his web browser to Nvidia’s Broadcast software, he was able to edit clips in real time and achieve stunning results. He notes that some people misinterpreted his edits as an attempt to “improve” the original, but stressed that “this couldn’t be further from the truth.”
If you’re interested in seeing what this technology can do, check out Gen Hashimoto’s live show tomorrow or the clips he’s already created. Who knows, you might even see an AI-edited version of your favorite movie scene!