I think it’s very tiring to look at a video chat screen when people are not looking at my eyes. When I’m in an online meeting, I want folks to be energized by the interaction. I also want to see their facial expressions so I can communicate well with them.
We don’t want to look up, down, or to the side. We want to connect with the camera.
Teleprompter / Beam Splitter
A teleprompter is a way to have a computer’s output (a monitor) positioned in front of the camera. It uses glass reflection to make sort of a transparent screen that the subject ( me) can see and that the camera can’t see. Usually this is used on TV for the person speaking to be able to read text while looking straight into the lens, but text isn’t the only thing that can be displayed.
We can use a teleprompter to show us the person on the other end of Zoom.
This is pretty great! Now, we’re looking at the person or people or pets directly. And they’re looking at the center of our eyes.
The teleprompter (sometimes called a beam splitter) is also helpful for me when I’m setting up the camera for other videos that include my face. I can see exactly what the picture looks like looking straight into camera.
Big Monitor Behind Camera
An alternative idea is to do the opposite. Instead of putting a virtual monitor in front of the camera, put a big one behind it. You can blow up the zoom window on that big monitor and, although the camera will be in the the middle of your field of view, you can still see most of your victim’s face.
This seems to work for people. It requires space for a big monitor / TV but it won’t require as much hardware to hold up a heavy teleprompter. Another benefit is that you might be able to get more detail on the bigger monitor like if you’re doing a group chat and you need to read everyone’s names off the screen.
Add Eyeballs
I don’t know if this one works at all, but people are doing it. It doesn’t give you an opportunity to see your opponent’s face, but it might help a little bit as a reminder to look at the camera, and it might soften your face a little while doing so.
Put some representation of eyes near the camera lens.
I’ve seen…
- plastic eyeballs
- drawings of eyes
- eyes cut out of magazines
- googly eye stickers