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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

#201

Post by djrogers »

speeder wrote: post #141
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…

I want to try this just to see what happens, if I will have again the feeling something is more real than reality. Because optometrists are illegal in my country (here only medics can decide what glasses you can use), currently I don't have stereoscopic vision, although my brain CAN do it, if I had the correct images sent to my eyes somehow. (one of my eyes muscles is slightly shorter than the other side thus the ima…

Sounds like a great reason to do a little medical tourism once the present situation is under control.

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

#202

Post by interestica »

spurgu wrote: post #124

Thought: 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.

I hate to say it but my first impression of this was that it looked like a visiting area for a prison. (Something about the bleak colour palette and minimalist display). But, I think that presents a similar long-distance use-case as the 'phone booth.' I wouldn't be surprised to see this as a pay-per-use option for prisoners/families. It's probably only a matter of time before the 'Echo Shows' capitalize on it.

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

#203

Post by ArtWomb »

abhv wrote: post #69
weird-eye-issue wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

NO WAY. It is impossible for me to explain how/why it works so well.

It looks like it came out of the high-fidelity Immersive Light Field Video presented at SIGGRAPH 2020. Quite impressive that within a year it's now a consumer product

https://augmentedperception.github.io/deepviewvideo/

WebAssembly SIMD is coming to Chrome as well. 2D images and video that only consisted of RGB and Alpha channels may appear downright primitive to future generations as depth camera rigs gain distribution ;)

https://www.chromestatus.com/feature/6533147810332672

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

#204

Post by sigstoat »

airstrike wrote: post #108

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 historic…

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

the business trips i've been on either involved the installation of equipment, or were an excuse for somebody with budget to burn it on travel and expensive food/alcohol. or both.

i think plenty of business travel will survive just fine.

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

#206

Post by [deleted] »

IshKebab wrote: post #176
cogman10 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, 10Mbps is likely where it'll be, probably less. If I were to guess, they are going to apply a lot of smarts to texture mapping to avoid needing a lot of bandwidth.

You can't even do basic video calling on a 10 Mbps connection. You definitely need the reliability and low latency of fibre for this.

[deleted]

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

#207

Post by kbenson »

eps wrote: post #162
signal11 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Facebook Telescreen™

To be followed up by Facebook Telepresence™ and then Facebook Omnipresence™? ;)

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

#209

Post by bitcoinmoney »

paxys wrote: post #167
spurgu wrote: post #124

Thought: 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.

It would have to be really futuristic to convince people to coordinate timings, reserve a slot, pay and drive to some location for a video call. FaceTime/WhatsApp are still good enough for most. The office use case is probably more realistic, but some other related products (Surface Hub, Jamboard) haven't become as ubiquitous as originally imagined.

Remote job interviews.
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