A new feature in Broadcast, NVIDIA's AI-powered live streaming app, makes that it looks as though you are maintaining eye contact when you look away, for example to read from your notes. 

Video conferencing has been a game changer, allowing us to attend meetings without having to leave the comfort and convenience of leaving home. NVIDA launched Broadcast in September 2020 with the claim that it could upgrade any room into a home broadcast studio, taking your livestreams, voice chats, and video conference calls to the next level with AI-enhanced voice and video. 

It is free software but it requires a minimum of 8GB RAM, a GPU, the options being NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, Quadro RTX 3000, TITAN RTX or higher.

At launch, the three AI-powered features it included were: 

• Noise Removal: remove background noise from your microphone feed – be it a dog barking or the doorbell ringing. The AI network can even be used on incoming audio feeds to mute that one keyboard-mashing friend who won’t turn on push-to-talk.
• Virtual Background: remove the background of your webcam feed and replace it with game footage, a replacement image, or even a subtle blur.
• Auto Frame: zooms in on you and uses AI to track your head movements, keeping you at the center of the action even as you shift from side to side. 

These features are demonstrated in this video from May 2021 by which time noise removal had been improved, allowing users to filter out dog, cat and even insect sounds and eliminate room echos. The upgraded version reduced visual noise from webcams, improved image quality; and allowed multiple AI effects to be used simultaneously for greater control over audio and video output.

Last month version Broadcast 1.4 became available bringing with it a new AI-powered feature. According to Gerardo Delgado Eye Contact, which is currently in beta,

is ideal 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.

In other words,  the eye contact features allows you to look somewhere else but on camera it will look like you're looking right at your web-cam:

The other new feature of Broadcast 1.4 demonstrated in the video clip is a Vignette effect, similar to those seen in apps like Instagram. Delgado advises:

Combine it with a subtle Background Blur effect to get an AI-simulated bokeh visual on your webcam, instantly improving visual quality.

He notes that in addition, the Blur, Replacement, and Removal Virtual Background effects have been enhanced with temporal information to achieve better segmentation and stability, enabling the AI to make better decisions and that two two of the most popular community requested features: the option to mirror your camera and to take a screenshot of your webcam, have been integrated into Broadcast in this release.

It is however the Eye Contact trick that might help us convince managers and that we are paying attention rather than playing solitaire or solving a Sudoko while attending a particularly tedious presentation that might attract new users. Is it really the shirker's dream app?

More Information

Download NVIDIA Broadcast

NVIDIA Broadcast 1.4 Adds Eye Contact and Vignette Effects With Virtual Background Enhancements

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