Patent ID: 7209160

Claim:
An eye contact teleconferencing terminal for allowing a first conferee to maintain eye contact with a second conferee imaged by the teleconferencing terminal, the teleconferencing terminal comprising: an image display with an image bearing surface; a semireflective transparent panel forming an angle of between about 30 and 70 degrees with the image bearing surface for viewing by the first conferee a reflection of the image bearing surface of the image display on the semireflective transparent panel; a second conferee image isolated in a black background displayed on the image bearing surface; a video camera disposed on a side of the semireflective transparent panel opposite the image bearing surface, the video camera capturing, through the semireflective transparent panel, an image of the first conferee who is disposed on the image bearing surface-side of the semireflective transparent panel; and a room environment with common objects providing visual reference to a residing location of the reflection within the room environment when the room environment is viewed by the first conferee through the semireflective transparent panel and its reflection of the black background.