Preserving gaze direction in teleconferencing using a camera array and a spherical display

The movement of human gaze is very important in face to face conversation. Some of the quality of that movement is lost in videoconferencing because the participants look at a single planar image of the remote person. We use an array of cameras to capture a remote user, and then display video of that person on a spherical display. We compare the spherical display to a face to face setting and a planar display. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the camera array and spherical display system in that it allows observers to accurately judge where the remote user is placing their gaze.