  Head-mounted displays (HMDs) serve as indispensable devices for observing
extended reality (XR) environments and virtual content. However, HMDs present
an obstacle to external recording techniques as they block the upper face of
the user. This limitation significantly affects social XR applications,
specifically teleconferencing, where facial features and eye gaze information
play a vital role in creating an immersive user experience. In this study, we
propose a new network for expression-aware video inpainting for HMD removal
(EVI-HRnet) based on generative adversarial networks (GANs). Our model
effectively fills in missing information with regard to facial landmarks and a
single occlusion-free reference image of the user. The framework and its
components ensure the preservation of the user's identity across frames using
the reference frame. To further improve the level of realism of the inpainted
output, we introduce a novel facial expression recognition (FER) loss function
for emotion preservation. Our results demonstrate the remarkable capability of
the proposed framework to remove HMDs from facial videos while maintaining the
subject's facial expression and identity. Moreover, the outputs exhibit
temporal consistency along the inpainted frames. This lightweight framework
presents a practical approach for HMD occlusion removal, with the potential to
enhance various collaborative XR applications without the need for additional
hardware.
