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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

#311
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like they're doing photogrammetry in real time, which is mind boggling. I'm not familiar with this space, but building a 3D model, texturing it with live video, compressing and sending that over the internet, and doing it with minimal latency for it to be believable/enjoyable? Incredible technical achievement if that's the approach. Using state of the art tech, no doubt, and probably lots of ML magic to smoo…

not that hard to do if you have actual depth sensing cameras, and even without those, something like the oculus quest 2 does that exact task (generate a rough 3d volume based on several 2d video feeds) you can see a neat example when you draw your guardian space, and move objects (and notice how it updates the 3d volume representation)

> not that hard to do

Then it would be done already.

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

#312

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…

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

Until technology can replicate the experience of staying out late, drunkenly chatting with coworkers in the back of a taxicab as you ride through Manhattan, then grabbing a midnight snack at a hole-in-the-wall diner someone recommended back at the office, business travel will have its place.

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

#313
post #258
post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And most people won't have wired gigabit and can't,

A lot of residential areas in the US have gigabit options, in some cases symmetric. There are lots that have 1000mbps down/40mbps up cable. Even 100mbps is sufficient for a 1-on-1 4k video call, as high-bitrate 4k is 30-40mbps. Most commercial office buildings in business districts have it available. Even Starlink (20mbps up) should be sufficient for 1-1 30fps 4k videoconferencing with a lower bitrate.

40mbit != gigabit

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

#314
post #138

Id just be really uncomfortable with google monitoring, recording and analyzing my personal communications to sell me ads or worse later. Everything google does now feels.... invasive for lack of a better word. This is something Id like to see from Apple, and Im not an Apple fan at all.

I was surprised today when I opened Gmail and it displayed this: https://i.imgur.com/SHSOSJ7.png

I was ok with Gmail scanning my emails to finetune targeted advertisement. But they don't do that, which is a nice surprise.

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

#315
Side note - why does it feel like so many of Google's products, and especially their most core offerings are in a state of ongoing decay? Search is getting worse. Maps today is worse than maps 10 years ago. Even their Google home assistants, YouTube, Gmail, and other products just seem to be steadily creeping into more annoyances and less usability.

There was a time I felt that Google's search was head and shoulders above anyone else's and when I reluctantly used DDG I felt I was compromising some aspect of search value for privacy value. But now when I use Google search I'm bombarded with ads, find I can't trust search results, and even copying search links results in a mess of Google redirect.

What is happening to the core Google products or am I a curmudgeon for believing that the Internet was at its most functional and user-friendly best circa 2008?

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

#316
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're witnessing magical tech and innovation, and here we are back to making fun of signing in, ads and cynicism about Google shutting down projects.

Especially because most of Google's productivity apps don't even have ads. I think it's just Gmail on mobile at the moment.

I thought Gmail "read" my emails to finetune ads but today it told me they don't: https://i.imgur.com/SHSOSJ7.png

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

#317
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mind was also blown when I got to demo this a few years ago. You sit down and you forget that there's technology happening. The person is there, in front of you. I don't know how else to describe it. The testimonials in the video aren't exaggerating compared to my experience.

Do you know if it supports multiple people on "screen" at once? Or does it rely on eye tracking of a single person (plus projection of some sort?) to be able to achieve the 3D effect?

I don't know anything more than what's been released, but from my understanding, light field display don't rely on eye tracking, and you can have multiple people looking from different angles (although the range may be limited to near the center). In the video itself, the camera filming the interaction is moving independently of the person sitting, and unless it was faked, it was able to see its own perspective.

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

#318
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mind was also blown when I got to demo this a few years ago. You sit down and you forget that there's technology happening. The person is there, in front of you. I don't know how else to describe it. The testimonials in the video aren't exaggerating compared to my experience.

Do you know if it supports multiple people on "screen" at once? Or does it rely on eye tracking of a single person (plus projection of some sort?) to be able to achieve the 3D effect?

It seems like it does, given in the demo video there's a lady and a baby in the same shot.

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

#319
The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.

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

#320
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Max I'd pay would be $6,000 because I'd need to buy two: one for me, and one for my parents. If it were $3000, I'd have already bought it. $20,000 is a bit out of the reach of most people, and reserves this for business use or desperate need. I could see a bunch of execs getting this installed in their home offices as a company perk, and then using it for personal reasons too.

A lot of execs don’t have optimal setups with current tech. A lot of people just don’t care.
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