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Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together

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Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together

#51

Post by bullfightonmars »

abhv wrote: post #2

A good friend of mine at Google is the technical lead of this project (he has a Phd Princeton, and was a professor before joining Google). I've tried it in person and it was truly amazing. They used some very fancy tech when I saw the demo, so I'm thrilled it is finally being announced and possibly shared with a larger audience. Explanation of why it is amazing: It totally fools your perception. No glasses or goggles…

If this was a consumer product I would buy two of these today, one for myself, and one for my parents. It is more compelling that any product I have seen for a long time.

Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together

#52

Post by jayd16 »

allenu wrote: post #30

Really cool execution. I wonder what the lag is like. I can imagine that's one thing that would break the illusion. I know with something like Zoom I've gotten used to managing the lag over time by taking turns with the other person. However, with the "live" feel of this, there could be an uncanny valley effect if the lag is subtle, but perceptible. Another thought: this is being presented as ongoing research. I wond…

Google has plenty of dark fiber. I'm sure they could get something close to land line levels of lag for an office to office connection.

Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together

#53

Post by paxys »

bullfightonmars wrote: post #51
abhv wrote: post #2

A good friend of mine at Google is the technical lead of this project (he has a Phd Princeton, and was a professor before joining Google). I've tried it in person and it was truly amazing. They used some very fancy tech when I saw the demo, so I'm thrilled it is finally being announced and possibly shared with a larger audience. Explanation of why it is amazing: It totally fools your perception. No glasses or goggles…

If this was a consumer product I would buy two of these today, one for myself, and one for my parents. It is more compelling that any product I have seen for a long time.

I imagine it isn't (yet) because of the price tag.

Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together

#54

Post by tengbretson »

abhv wrote: post #2

A good friend of mine at Google is the technical lead of this project (he has a Phd Princeton, and was a professor before joining Google). I've tried it in person and it was truly amazing. They used some very fancy tech when I saw the demo, so I'm thrilled it is finally being announced and possibly shared with a larger audience. Explanation of why it is amazing: It totally fools your perception. No glasses or goggles…

Wouldn't there also have to be some kind of head tracking involved? Otherwise you're still limited to just showing a fixed perspective in 3d.

Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together

#56

Post by skybrian »

allenu wrote: post #30

Really cool execution. I wonder what the lag is like. I can imagine that's one thing that would break the illusion. I know with something like Zoom I've gotten used to managing the lag over time by taking turns with the other person. However, with the "live" feel of this, there could be an uncanny valley effect if the lag is subtle, but perceptible. Another thought: this is being presented as ongoing research. I wond…

The longer the project exists and the more people there are who get to try it, the more likely it is to leak.

To speculate, here are some reasons why keeping it secret longer might be hard:

  - They're going to do wider testing within Google.
  - They're going to start bringing outside testers in to try it.
  - They're going to start working with manufacturers.
  - Some newspaper got wind of it and is about to publish a story. (I think this happened with driverless cars?)
Apple is better at keeping secrets, and even they leak.

Also, it's nice for the people working on it when they no longer have to keep what they do a secret.

Edit: although, in this case, the timing mostly has to do with Google I/O starting today.

Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together

#57

Post by weird-eye-issue »

abhv wrote: post #2

A good friend of mine at Google is the technical lead of this project (he has a Phd Princeton, and was a professor before joining Google). I've tried it in person and it was truly amazing. They used some very fancy tech when I saw the demo, so I'm thrilled it is finally being announced and possibly shared with a larger audience. Explanation of why it is amazing: It totally fools your perception. No glasses or goggles…

Do you think it's possible 90% of this is due to the studio quality lighting, large high quality screen, good mic/speakers, and low latency network? It seems like those factors alone would get most of the way there and the 3D aspect is just a bonus. Obviously I haven't used it in person but this was just a thought since most people are used to video calls on their small phone/laptop with poor lighting, mics, etc

Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together

#58

Post by breakingcups »

It's interesting to see the compression artifacts affecting hair specifically.

I guess we're going to get used to different kinds of compression artifacts in the coming years because we're switching to spatial information being transmitted as opposed to just pixels. Hair is so much harder to get right than a face.

Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together

#59

Post by gmueckl »

jayd16 wrote: post #43
AdamTReineke wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Appears similar to the tech in the Nintendo 3DS: lenses over the screen so each eye sees a different picture. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autostereoscopy

Why does it appear similar to that tech other than you get a 3d image? As far as I can tell there's no info on the display other than it uses "Light field technology" which would make it different than the parallax barrier display on the 3DS.

The term light field technology is broad enough to cover lenticular arrays in displays. The 3DS had the major limitation that it only rendered two views. If you increase the resolution to be able to display more views for more viewing directions within a wider cone, you already have a light field display - simply because all these views combined form a sampled light field representation by definition. This is exactly the same as glassless 3d displays for multiple viewers of decades past. But advances in display pixel density and computing power apparently make the resulting illusion much more convincing these days.

Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together

#60

Post by paxys »

tomduncalf wrote: post #26
aerovistae wrote: post #10

This reminds me of the devices described in the short story "The Story of Your Life", which is the basis of the movie Arrival. Excellent, excellent story and very different from the movie, if anyone's into that kind of thing.

Seconded, I’ve really enjoyed all of Ted Chiang’s books and wish he was more prolific as I’ve read them all! An excellent writer and I think his style would appeal to the HN crowd as it’s kind of sci-fi, kind of based in science, and many of his stories are quite thought provoking and unique. Also they’re all short stories so great if you struggle finding time to take on a whole book or whatever!

I recently read Exhalation, and was blown away by how engaging and thought provoking the stories were. Would highly recommend it to anyone with even a passing, high-level interest in sci-fi.
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