I think another good use case for this sort of hardware/service could be for youtubers/streamers/performers who want to provide immersive interaction to the viewers. If I am a fan of a singer, I'd definitely pay for an opportunity to watch the person singing right in front of me, instead of going to the concerts where I watch them singing miles away.
Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
151–160 of 539 posts
Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 distrib…
IBM in the 90's strongly agrees with you - this software stuff is never going to be profitable and everything people pay for will always end up going through us! More seriously, I disagree about software being less important because there have been very real innovations for tooling accomplished in software alone. Email is a pretty classic example - but a more modern one might be Google Cardboard which can turn your s…
I think you're conflating technology with profitable or important. That is, you see me saying that software isn't technology and think I'm saying that software isn't profitable or important. That's not at all what I'm saying though. I likened software to writing. Writing can be important and it can be profitable, it's just not technology.
Maybe we could agree on email as a technology. Maybe. I think it's a stretch. I hope we could both agree that the nth email client isn't technology though. It's not adding a new capability to humanity which is how I tend to think about technology. Refrigerator - keep stuff cold. Electricity - power to operate machines and light. Computers - organize, access, modify information. etc. New JavaScript library or new game... Not so much technology.
Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
#153Thought: This could bring back phone booths. If this tech turns out to be too expensive (for normal people) we could still use it on a pay-per-use basis, like with a "video conferencing booth". You'd schedule your call and reserve a local booth for both participants through an app. And most companies should be able to afford having one of these in the office.
Totally unrelated but on the radio there was a company talking about making internet pods to be able to communicate without being in the open like in starbucks.
It seems we're seeing a second coming of distributed private comms.
Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
#154My 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.
maternal grandfather had trouble adjusting to tv too, he never stopped greeting female tv hosts on screen
Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23316225 > the 8K is their Input Resolution. > That resolution is then divided into the 45 viewing directions:
Is existing Looking Glass Factory tech the same though? Not so sure about that. Those displays are typically monitor-sized at the largest and not really aimed at displaying a live feed of a person. This looks to be a more seamless experience on a larger screen.
Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
#156Why does the copy on this page read like something out of dystopian novel?
Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
#157The capture and compression part might be related to this Google Research:
https://augmentedperception.github.io/deepviewvideo/
Interview about the SIGGRAPH paper here: https://blog.siggraph.org/2020/08/how-google-is-making-strea...
Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
#158This , 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 historic…
From my experience business travel is as much about sharing an experience as it is the discussion or dissemination of information. That's a hard thing to replicate
My theory is that physical proximity means danger or love to our animal brains .. and knowing it's tech will disengage your brain from feeling close and will change your emotions and engagement to the other person. Now something more natural than a LCD screen might make video calls a bit more lively and efficient.
Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
#159On a related note, I wanted to share my amazing experience with a similar but lo-fi tech.
My mom and dad for the past 2-3 years have mostly lived in two separate countries (due to work reasons) and I could tell they miss each other quite a bit.
I got both of them an Echo Show 10" device each and set it up for them. I don't think I can explain how our lives have changed for the better, just based on this simple piece of tech.
The Echo Show is now pretty much constantly on video call for 14-16 hours a day in the living room of both houses and it has become an extension of the one another; a window into the other house. The audio and mics are good enough that at times you genuinely forget the other person is not in the same room. This has truly helped them, especially during Covid times.
It's actually good enough that my parents have their morning tea together practically almost the same way they used to when they were physically together. They've told me multiple times "I don't know how we could've lived without this Alexa thing".
If Google can eventually get the prices down to reasonable levels, I really think people would be shocked at how fast this thing becomes part of our daily lives.
Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
#160[deleted]