Don’t Look at the Camera: Achieving eye contact in video conferencing platforms

Eye contact and gaze are important social cues as they convey information about attention, awareness, emotion and intent. For single subjects photographed by a camera, conventional wisdom tells us that looking directly into the camera achieves eye contact. Is this actually correct? The answer is fundamental in times of increasingly intensive use of video conferencing platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, where, in the absence of in-person non verbal cues, eye-contact can promote positive social interaction. In this study we used subjective and objective measures to assess where subjects should direct their gaze relative to a camera lens to optimize perception of eye contact by an external observer (e.g., a person on the other side of a video call). We collected pictures of 4 actors looking at 11 vertically displaced points (including straight-ahead at the camera) and verified their point of gaze using an eye-tracker. These pictures were then presented to 17 participants who were asked to rate their subjective perception of eye contact as well as whether the actor seemed to be looking up or down. Results suggest that looking just below the camera (~2°) appears to be ideal for achieving the perception of eye contact. We discuss the implications of the current study, offer insights into future directions and explore considerations for correcting for the perception of eye contact in video conferencing platforms.