Live data from Hacker News

Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together

blog.google

91–100 of 539 posts

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

#91
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is an example of important technology that did not start as something only available to the affluent/connected?

Penicillin. But then, he wasn't trying to make money off of it. And basically anything Nintendo pushes as a console gimmick. It's not that the tech immediately goes from research to broadly accessible, but rather that they tend to take old tech that no one saw as having profitable consumer applications and find one for it. In that way, as far as consumers are concerned, it goes from unknown to widely-used without mak…

Penicillin, maybe? But I wonder how quickly it became readily available outside of the Western world.

And I see that Nintendo has apparently sold an extremely impressive number of consoles (https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/11/nintendo_has_now_s...). But even if everyone only bought one console each, that's only about 10% of world population.

This may be a little unfair, but I do wonder if there isn't a tendency to consider a technology to be widely available when it becomes available to you and the folks farther back in the line don't count or aren't relevant.

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

#92
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that's what the lightfield does. You see different physical images depending on your angle to the screen

Fascinating. So not only is it feeding it an 8K / 30 (60?) FPS image, it's feeding it numerous incident angle variations and displaying all of them simultaneously? Sounds like a monster data rate.

[deleted]

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

#93
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that's what the lightfield does. You see different physical images depending on your angle to the screen

Fascinating. So not only is it feeding it an 8K / 30 (60?) FPS image, it's feeding it numerous incident angle variations and displaying all of them simultaneously? Sounds like a monster data rate.

I only know what I saw from the IO stream, but I think it might send a compressed 3D mesh + texture across the network and render the light field locally.

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

#94
post #22

HP did this at least 15 years ago with their "Halo" conferencing systems: https://www.networkworld.com/article/2258553/inside-the-halo... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC4sNztp8dk

HP's Halo conferencing system had several studio quality cameras that would change the video feed based on who was talking. There were also specially placed mics on the conference table to keep audio crisp. The video quality was impressive, however you had the same issues that you have with current web-cam based systems. Eye-contact was non-existent. While the camera placement was above the middle-top of the LCD screen, you'd never feel like the person was making eye-contact with you unless they looked directly at the camera. I had several team meetings in Halo rooms, and for the time, it was the next best thing to having a meeting in person. It also worked well for groups of 4 on each side of the link.

From watching the video, Google's conferencing setup is creating a 3D rep of the people talking and adjusting rendered view based on where the participants are seated. This is blending AR with videoconferencing. It would be interesting to see how their conferencing system works with multiple-people on each side. I know the video had a mother and baby in one segment, however is the 3D rendering based on the eye-level of the main participants?

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

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is an example of important technology that did not start as something only available to the affluent/connected?

Minecraft. Linux. (Really want to write GNU, but that's not true.)

I think Minecraft and Linux are more like the content produced on top of the technology that is computers. It's like if a new book is written it's quickly available to everyone in the market who can afford a book. The book isn't really technology, but the printing, publishing, and distribution is and it's been around long enough to be distributed.

Software seems less like technology and more like writing. The distribution cost, once the systems are in place, is marginal. The technology part is creating the systems that enable the software.

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

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I’m quite picky when it comes to sci-fi, a lot of it I don’t really like, but he nails a really unique sweet spot where sci-fi is just the framing device used for some beautiful stories. Might reread his books next actually! Edit: I’d love any recommendations of other authors people think of when discussing his books. Doesn’t necessarily have to be the same style but more just that level of quality and uni…

The first story in Exhalation is written in the style of the Arabian Nights (Thousand and One Nights). Get the unabridged, original translation by Richard Burton - it is some of the most beautiful literature ever written - comes in 16 volumes so there will be no shortage of reading material!

Awesome! Thanks very much.

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

#97
post #49

My dad used to tell a story about my grandfather's first experience with television in the late forties. There was a buxom woman on the screen, and he walked up to it, trying to look down her cleavage. It didn't work. Does Starline give you a different view when you change your perspective? It looks like it does to some extent. If so, it might work before long, but grandpa died about fifty years too soon for it.

My understanding of the existing tech that's out (3d displays) is that it allows for such on the X axis (different view per-eye) but not on the Y, so a scenario such as you described (looking downwards) might still remain sci-fi for the moment. Perhaps this does something entirely new/novel with display tech but there's nothing to suggest that at the moment.

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

#98
post #49

My dad used to tell a story about my grandfather's first experience with television in the late forties. There was a buxom woman on the screen, and he walked up to it, trying to look down her cleavage. It didn't work. Does Starline give you a different view when you change your perspective? It looks like it does to some extent. If so, it might work before long, but grandpa died about fifty years too soon for it.

Great story re: your grandfather. Thanks for sharing.

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

#100
post #59
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Isn't it clear glass and not a layer over a traditional display like the 3DS? Glasses would either actively time slice with shutters, or spectrum slice with passive filters on the lens and of course you need the glasses.

How could any of those technologies be what is used here?

E: Looking again, perhaps it could be some layer over a traditional screen. You see through some of the broadcasts but that could just be the digital far plane that shows through.

Post reply on HN