Eye contact is a natural and often essential element in the language of
visual communication. Unfortunately, perceiving eye contact is difficult
in most videoconferencing systems and hence limits their effectiveness.
We conducted experiments to determine how accurately people perceive eye
contact. We discovered that the sensitivity to eye contact is asymmetric,
in that we are an order of magnitude less sensitive to eye contact when
people look below our eyes than when they look to the left, right, or
above our eyes. Additional experiments support a theory that people are
prone to perceive eye contact, that is, we will think that someone is
making eye contact with us unless we are certain that the person is not
looking into our eyes. These experimental results suggest parameters for
the design of videoconferencing systems. As a demonstration, we were able
to construct from commodity components a simple dyadic videoconferencing
prototype that supports eye contact.
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