Nvidia's Broadcast can now simulate eye contact

(Image Courtesy: Nvidia)

US chip-maker Nvidia's Broadcast, a tool for live-streaming and video- conferencing, now has the ability to simulate eye contact with the camera even if the subject is looking away in a growing list of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated effects.

The Eye Contact tool can now estimate and align a speaker's gaze with the camera while retaining the natural colour of their eyes and even blinks.

Nvidia has also added a disconnect feature that lets a user smoothly transition between the AI-generated gaze and the natural one.

AI is fast emerging as the new battleground for chip-makers to stay ahead. Nvidia, Qualcomm and Intel have been leaning heavily on AI to make their offerings stand apart from the competition.

The green team says the feature is meant for "content creators seeking to record themselves while reading their notes or a script, or avoiding having to stare directly at the camera. Video conference presenters will look at the eyes of the person they’re speaking with, improving engagement with their audiences".

Eye Contact is in beta and Nvidia is inviting the community to share feedback for improving the AI-generated effect.

Besides Eye Contact, Nvidia has also added a new vignette filter that subtly adds background blur to simulate bokeh effect on webcam.

Nvidia has enhanced the vignette and virtual backgrounds with "temporal information to achieve better segmentation and stability, enabling the AI to make better decisions. In cases where the network makes a mistake, you will not see parts of the background popping in and out as much."

Nvidia Broadcast is free for all GeForce RTX GPU owners and can be downloaded here.