Beam 4K, Inc. (Chagrin Falls, OH) went to great lengths to create a transparent glass screen that a front-projected image wouldn’t glow through while a centered-behind camera makes the simple act of looking at the screen create direct eye contact for online meeting participants seeing video from that camera. This is a core capability across the upcoming Beam4K™ brand and will first be available with the new Beam4K™ Pro 24, which can be ordered now for delivery in 4Q 2025. A prestigious third-party report supports the importance of eye contact:
“Eye contact marks the rise and fall of shared attention in conversation.” (Sophie Wohltjen and Thalia Wheatley of the Dartmouth Psychological and Brain Sciences Department) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Sep 2021, 118 (37) https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2106645118
The study says, “Eye contact may be a key mechanism for enabling the coordination of shared and independent modes of thought, allowing conversation to both cohere and evolve.”
Beam 4K Inc. CEO Martin Winston adds, “One thing I keep seeing in online meetings is the return of the implied favor of direct eye contact. When I deliberately look into my camera, I see other faces in the meeting spend more time with their attention in one place and not all over the place. For a broad variety of reasons, I’m a champion of direct eye contact, and we went to extraordinary measures – and a few Patent Pending new ideas – to make it an effortless outcome of using our Beam4K™ products. For me, this NAS report ups the ante by demonstrating under research conditions that eye contact itself can increase the level of engagement of people conversing.”
Beam 4K, Inc. develops proprietary hardware and software (46 Patent-Pending claims) to make it easier for online meetings to communicate more, communicate better and end sooner.