For anyone who doesn’t think a year of trying to work and socialize through video calls could get even worse, see the Eyecam: A anthropomorphic robot webcam designed to look like a human eyeball even blinks and looks around the room. Maybe phone calls and email weren’t so bad after all?
The Eyecam was developed by a team of researchers led by Marc Teyssier from the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at Saarland University in Germany. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Teyssier was also the researcher behind one smartphone covered with artificial skin that allows a person to deal with physical touches, blows, taps, and even squeezes. It allowed emotional intent to be conveyed to a device that would otherwise fail to recognize those signals. For some reason, we thought that was as scary as technology could get, but Teyssier is back to prove us wrong.
The research will be presented at the forthcoming 2021 ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computer SystemsThe goal is not to deter everyone from video conferencing apps like Zoom and Skype – although no one would blame these researchers for their endgame – but the emotional connection people experience during one-on-one conversations. to our current situation where those interactions are not advisable.
Inside the EyecAm’s artificial eyeball is a real cannibalized webcam sensor and lens, which is surrounded by a fake silicone skull that enables functional eyelids and an animated brow that is powered by six electric servos that get in the way of the muscles. An Arduino Nano controls all the movements of the motors, while a Raspberry Pi Zero allows this monstrous creation to interact with a PC like a plain old USB webcam. It is completely open-source and you can download any digital files needed to create your own files GitHubAn instructional video of the entire construction process is still in the works.
The EyecI kind of look like a real human eye (minus the rest of the human), but the real purpose of this research is to make it move and respond like a real human eye does to create a stronger emotional connection with a person you are only seeing on the screen. It is reminiscent of the robot made by Disney Research designed to simulate a realistic human look by mimicking the subtle movements that humans unconsciously perform. This could be due to their lungs filling and deflating with air or involuntary reflexes responding to nearby sounds or movements, breaking the gaze.
There are some interesting future applications for the Eyec through the use of facial recognitionam. Rather than just randomly looking around during a video call, the eye movements of the person calling a user can be assigned and replicated by the Eyecwhat they stare at, creating a deeper emotional connection. A hardware upgrade could even introduce the ability for the robot eye to shed a tear when things get particularly emotional. Even though you have this thing on top of your computer, you will probably want to do everything you can to keep a conversation light and easy-going or it will rain tears on your expensive hardware.
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