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.
Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
221–230 of 539 posts
Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I'm not sure I'm following. If this is based on a flat panel display, there must be a lens array in front of it. There is no other way to achieve this effect without requiring the users to wear glasses. The lens array can be covered by a protective flat glass pane without issue.
Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
#223Thought: 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.
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Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
#224Earlier 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
What I think you're trying to describe already exists as a product from Cisco called "telepresence". It is/was insanely expensive, was a permanent installation that only Cisco contracted techs could install, and did what you describe: It is a series of large, curved HD displays with desks at an appropriate distance from the screens/cameras, and copious amounts of indirect lighting from behind the setup to make each p…
Wow I forgot about Telepresence. I used it a decade ago at a Fortune 500 company. With all of the cameras and displays perfectly positions, everyone was life-sized on video, felt like you were sitting around a roundtable. Now I'm imagining that with higher resolution and 3D light field display, wow.
Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
#225Thought: 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.
it would certainly sit comfortably in a black mirror episode, lol.
Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
#226please don't get google glass'd
Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
#227Reminds me of Teliris (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teliris) which I got to demo 15 years ago. That product ran on dark fiber with special hardware to simulate two sides of a conference table. Really uncanny and unsettling etiquette-wise. One-on-one feels better all around.
Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
#228Earlier 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 what they are transferring is not a video but 3d model and the skin texture applied on the model (all derived from the realtime video / depth recording on the other side). The receiving and then renders it as a 3d model on the screen.
Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being able to feel like another person in the room is enough for me to reconsider working from home. As of right now I strongly have a preference for in person, but I do acknowledge most people prefer commute and cost benefits over productivity. The state of video conferencing today is a poor one and I'm very excited for something that can change the industry like this.
I'm right there with you, and I use a 4k camera and a boom mic and headphones and wired ethernet to videoconference now: I have been regularly complaining about the low resolution and framerates of current videoconferencing systems (10-15fps, 720p, low bitrate - and that's the highest quality setting available!). If Google wanted to make me believe they care about videoconferencing quality, they'd have a 4k 60fps opt…
And most people won't have wired gigabit and can't,
Re: Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together
#230It looks like magic, when I saw the video I briefly thought it was a joke (ha-ha, they're actually in the same room!). I wonder how much of the magic is software and how much is hardware? The video certainly plays up the software, but I've never used zoom or FaceTime in an 8k video call booth before, so I suppose I don't have a point of comparison.
It's not just an 8K video call, it also has 3D depth.
I'm not sure it's the parent's point (I suspect it is), but mine would be that it might be you get 80% of the "it's like they're there in the room" effect by having 8k; good lighting; well-separated, good quality, stereo sound; a purpose made space without distractions; etc.?
If you've only had 480/720 on a small screen, with a mono microphone with poor lighting, lag, dropouts, then just fixing those things and making it 2k+ might be surprisingly good (ie will have an emotional impact due to the truer representation)?