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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

#101

Post by munk-a »

dpratt71 wrote: post #70
wizzwizz4 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Is it not the case that having access to a machine capable of running either Minecraft or Linux in the early days of each (if not now) means you are (or were) fairly affluent?

It depends on what you mean by the early days of each - in the really early days of Linux (1992) computers were probably going to cost north of a few thousand dollars and the type of computer Linux was designed for (a multi-user system for dumb terminals) would cost tens of thousands of dollars. By the time linux became a thing more than a handful of people in any given state knew about you could probably run it on a machine costing somewhere around 300$.

Minecraft has never been demanding resource wise, I'm sure early versions had serious performance issues but running it on a cheapo laptop has always been totally reasonable - it's quite accessible (it was written in java even!)

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

#102

Post by dialogbox »

defaultname wrote: post #71
wesleyy wrote: 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 think that is where the custom compression algorithm comes in. If you think the fact that human body and face doesn't change much, and the fact that it's a 3d model based, the compression ratio could be very high.

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

#104

Post by fellowniusmonk »

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.

I definitely got vibes of the "viewing" tech from Asimov's "The Naked Sun", always exciting to see sci-fi tech reach the real world.

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

#106

Post by shriphani »

tomduncalf wrote: post #96
shriphani wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And of course I feel I have to mention Richard Burton himself who led possibly the most interesting life in his time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Francis_Burton

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

#107

Post by AppleCandy »

Simulacra wrote: post #15

That is really interesting but I can't shake the feeling of it being like visiting hours at the jail.

No, just needs some onlyfans optimization. Step aside VR, there's a new medium in town, revolutionary engagement if casters can pony up.

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

#108

Post by airstrike »

This, my friends, is how business travel becomes nearly irrelevant.

This is a beautifully executed idea and if the demos live up to expectation the hype may even be warranted. But on a much more fundamental level (i.e. fancy 3D imaging and spatial audio aside), this also possibly suggests people would benefit from dedicated videoconferencing hardware. TVs and telephones do one thing really well (or at least historically they did), which is why even my legally blind grandpa could call his friends or watch^W listen to the news. There's a market for having a plug-and-play videophone now that we have the software to go inside it.

What are Zoom, Facebook or Apple waiting for?

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

#109

Post by signal11 »

ipsum2 wrote: post #81
bullfightonmars wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How much would you pay? I expect the lower end to be around $20,000 from hardware alone, plus at least gigabit down/up connectivity.

I suspect eventually this will percolate down, somewhat like Facebook's Portal TV (£149) but possibly also integrated with something like a Google Assistant/Siri type smart device to power the software and do other smart-home type things in your home.

Many ordinary folk already have 4k TVs at home and 8k will probably become commonplace in the future. The real bottleneck will be good low-latency broadband both up and down, but fibre to the home should make that easier. I wonder if ISPs in the future will offer QoS guarantees to enable really good videoconferencing?

I mean, Zoom, Meet et al are much better than video conferencing solutions like Webex even from a few years ago, but it's hilarious how much drama there still is around video calls. "oh, sorry, I didn't realise I had muted myself", "can you hear me...?", "I think we just lost Steve", and so on. I'll be glad to see all of that just go away.

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

#110

Post by piyh »

fungiblecog wrote: post #99

Am I the only one that thinks one-on-one video is already fine, and what we actually need is to improve the experience so that a group of people feel like they're meeting in the same place?

The inexorable march of technology will continue, curmudgeon or not. There's no reason this approach won't scale to groups or larger areas.
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