The present invention enables eye contact between conferees during a
teleconference using a terminal equipped with a beam-splitter. The camera
is positioned behind the viewing side of the beam-splitter to capture the
conferee's image through the beam-splitter. The reflection of the video
display appears to be positioned in a room environment with common room
objects, serving to associate the position of the reflection in the room
environment. The transparent quality of the beamsplitter is used not only
for capturing eye contact images from one direction, but also revealing
the room environment by enabling the conferee to see-through the
beamsplitter. The invention can be configured to create the appearance
that a life-size teleconference image of a remote conferee appears in the
same room as the local conferee viewing the reflection and appears to be
sitting on the other side of the desk