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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

#461

Post by illwrks »

I have very little knowledge of this, but as a product would it not be much cheaper to have something like a wii bar fixed to the top and bottom of a screen, with a small camera at the extremities of each bar (one for each of the four corners)?

You could then use the camera perspectives to create a 3d image of the person you're conversing with and map the colour data correctly to that 3d image (Photogrammetry)

You could also likely use the information from the four cameras to map the orientation of the 3d image of the person you're speaking with to give you that sense of depth as you shift your position. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw

If you had a speaker and mic in each corner you could also capture / emit subtle differences in audio to further enhance it.

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

#462

Post by sizzle »

sizzle wrote: post #398

So are they going to use NLP to parse your conversions and build a knowledge graph of all your topics of interest to later run targeted advertising that is shockingly accurate and manipulates you to waste money purchasing random products you really didn’t need to waste money on right now?

Conversations*

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

#463

Post by vbezhenar »

ghaff wrote: post #229
sneak wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,

50 megabits is enough for most scenes in 4K Blu-ray. 10 megabits should be enough for 4K stream with good enough quality.

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

#464

Post by ForHackernews »

nexuist wrote: post #318
rewq4321 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

We don't know if the baby is seeing the full 3d effect, but my understanding of how light-field displays work is that it isn't based on eye-tracking.

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

#465

Post by ksec »

I used to say Google has never done anything really great other than their search engine. And generally speaking this opinions tends to get quite a lot of upvote ( as well as some unsuccessful counter arguments ). That is why when another Google project launch or failed. I wont be surprised.

This is the first time, I felt this is going to be great. Something that should have came from Apple, the humane side of technology, for the first time ever came from Google.

Hopefully this isn't a one off thing or an outliner from Google. Apple desperately need some competition.

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

#466

Post by mkl »

numpad0 wrote: post #419
The_rationalist wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

would be nice to share the site

Could be Zenni Optical. Prescription glasses, right as ordered, no questions asked.

I have glasses from Zenni. Very cheap, and well made. My current glasses cost ~10% of what the previous pair cost me in NZ, and the lenses are better quality. The glasses cost less than the optometrist visit, and I bought a second identical pair as a backup.

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

#467

Post by dontwannabe »

presentation wrote: post #431
dontwannabe wrote: post #416

How is this different from a high resolution screen?

Pretty sure it makes a 3d model of the scene and then if you move around the perspective changes as well, since the screen can show different images based on the angle you look at it. you can see a bit of this in the video when the camera moves around.

Does it track eyes to change the perspective? Since the image is in 2d, i can not think of any other way?

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

#468

Post by mritchie712 »

ksec wrote: post #465

I used to say Google has never done anything really great other than their search engine. And generally speaking this opinions tends to get quite a lot of upvote ( as well as some unsuccessful counter arguments ). That is why when another Google project launch or failed. I wont be surprised. This is the first time, I felt this is going to be great. Something that should have came from Apple, the humane side of techno…

It could also completely disappear due to lack of a compelling enough business model. We'll see!

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

#469

Post by ajliu »

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…

> 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?

This is already a thing?

Facebook has Portal, Apple has iPad, Amazon has Echo, all of whom support Zoom and other video conferencing apps. The portal even has a moving camera to keep you centered if you're moving in frame, and the iPad does the same thing with an ultra-wide lens and some post-processing.

As far as dedicated videoconferencing hardware is concerned, Starline seems pretty late to the game. Although, I'll admit the fancy 3D imaging features is pretty insane.

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

#470

Post by spurgu »

ByteWelder wrote: post #452
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 doubt that very much. Consider these scenarios: 1. Call for free from home/couch with a regular camera in the privacy of my home. 2. Go to some location and pay a third party to do a less private call, and have a better visual experience. The most obvious choice would be number 1 in 99.9% of all cases. In theory, privacy can be increased by creating a sound-proofed environment for your call, but in practice, that w…

The main thing here is the radically improved UX (as advertised). With this kind of tech I might actually hook up with some remote friends with whom I currently just text (I don't really use video calls for anything other than work).

Edit: And even 0.01% of the video call market would be quite large. Naturally this idea wouldn't work if something like 10% of all video calls were replaced with these booths, they would be fully booked for weeks forward. ;)

Edit2: And we already know most people don't care that much about their privacy since they already use services like Google Meet and Zoom and whatnot.

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