Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together • Hacker News Board

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

#481

Post by dmux » Wed, May 19, 2021, 12:42 PM UTC

kossTKR wrote: post #268

thepasswordis wrote: post #253

Am I the only one horrified by this? The second photo of the person sitting in a booth looks like a set piece from some cautionary science fiction movie.

No, the whole setup looks dystopian to me. The presentation too knowing Google. Looks like a prison. People are already depressed as hell from the lack of touch, real family, community and friends in modern society. That said, of course this tech could have its uses, but mediated by the largest corporations on Earth that collect, sell and mediate everything about you and your friends? No thanks!

I can only imagine how unnerving it would be to hit a spike in latency or something and be shaken from your "suspension of disbelief" while your loved one glitches out and falls into uncanny valley territory.

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

#482

Post by School-Cotton » Wed, May 19, 2021, 12:50 PM UTC

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…

> how business travel becomes nearly irrelevant

I hope not. Video chat can really never be the same thing as meeting people in person.

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

#483

Post by School-Cotton » Wed, May 19, 2021, 12:52 PM UTC

adam wrote: post #119

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…

I immediately thought of business travel as well. Project us all in to a virtual conference room and give us a suite of collaboration tools to use while we're all there. The only thing missing is the after meeting drinks and dinner, but there will inevitably be services to put us all in a restaurant/bar environment, pipe in some bar white noise, have food sent from a local restaurant, etc. for an "in-person" virtual…

> there will inevitably be services to put us all in a restaurant/bar environment, pipe in some bar white noise, have food sent from a local restaurant, etc. for an "in-person" virtual happy hour...

I honestly can’t believe this still sounds fun to anyone after a year of Zoom dystopia.

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

#484

Post by ghaff » Wed, May 19, 2021, 12:57 PM UTC

imiric wrote: post #306

serf wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (e.g. electric cars were invented in the 19th century and are only now becoming popular) I hate this example, and it's like one of the most common ones on HN. As said by thousands of people and many documentaries before me , the electric car had numerous real conspiracies working against it, some of which were the most powerful financial groups in the world.[0] The 'electric car' wasn't made popular and possible by…

Why does it matter which circumstances allowed the electric car to become popular only now? Whether that's because of major industry and consumer shifts, or because the technology matured enough for mass market, they have the same effect. It's certainly a combination of both, and we shouldn't downplay the advances in battery technology alone. I mentioned that example because the previous two comments were dismissing…

>this attempt at 3D teleconferencing

For that matter video teleconferencing period has only just really hit critical mass even though there were videophones at the NY World's Fair in the 1960s and camera systems have been around in conference rooms for a few decades.

What really happened was that it became more or less accessible to anyone with a laptop and an even marginal network connection for basically no cost. And, oif course, the last 18 months really pushed it over the finish line if it wasn't already.

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

#485

Post by abrahamepton » Wed, May 19, 2021, 12:59 PM UTC

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’s a pretty silly argument. Maps, android, gmail, translate, docs, mapreduce, kubernetes, tensorflow come to mind off the top of my head. Honestly it’s a stupid contention. Apple’s awesome but the list of “great” things they’ve done is what, a third as long despite existing decades longer?

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

#486

Post by ghaff » Wed, May 19, 2021, 12:59 PM UTC

golfer wrote: post #310

suyash wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, it's just a fancy FaceTime technology, I would be bored after few days. Tell me a problem that it solves.

Tell me a problem Instagram solves. It's just a fancy Myspace. Tell me a problem WhatsApp solves. It's just a fancy SMS. Tell me a problem X solves. It's just a fancy Y. Etc etc

>Tell me a problem WhatsApp solves. It's just a fancy SMS.

I gather it mostly solves that SMS is expensive in a lot of contexts. Personally I never use it because most of the people I text with have US phones. And the one person who doesn't, we use Facebook.

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

#487

Post by ProAm » Wed, May 19, 2021, 1:10 PM UTC

silentsea90 wrote: post #172

ProAm wrote: 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.

Do you pay for youtube?

I don't publish content on YouTube, but YouTube is also not intimate communication with friends and family.

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

#488

Post by ProAm » Wed, May 19, 2021, 1:12 PM UTC

throwaway3699 wrote: post #303

ProAm wrote: 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.

> Google Cloud (which offers Meet) doesn't use customer data for advertising. Google Cloud doesn't sell customer data to third parties. https://support.google.com/meet/answer/9852160?hl=en-GB#zipp... Why would this be any different?

I do not trust what comes out of Google PR vs what their engineers do behind the scenes. They've been caught in the past doing nefarious things or just a general disconnect/interpretation between what they say and what they do. Because they are an advertising company I always assume that takes priority with direction.

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

#489

Post by dieze » Wed, May 19, 2021, 1:25 PM UTC

TulliusCicero wrote: post #193

chis wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's something like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI__qNx8Gdk Track both eyes, and then project an image to each eye based on its image in the room. The part I don't really understand is how it's possible to target the image to each eye. Maybe we have displays now which are like the 3DS screen, but with variable focal locations?

If it's that, why does the camera see a gradually different image as it pans around? See: https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/ori... Notice how the angle of her face changes as the camera moves: first you only see her left ear, at the end of the animation you only see her right ear.

Use a demo mode to disable eye tracking and follow your ARcore/Vive puck located camera ? Or just ask the guy to close his eyes and put googly eyes on your camera...

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

#490

Post by faitswulff » Wed, May 19, 2021, 1:36 PM UTC

asenna wrote: post #474

faitswulff wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you consider Google Nest Hub for this use case? I’ve been thinking of doing the same thing but I’m not sure which to get.

Last I checked, Google Nest did not have a "Drop-in" feature like Echo where my parents can just drop-into the living room of the other house (no calling or ringing). The Echo device just makes a sound that someone is dropping-in and gives a 10 seconds heads-up (of course this only works if you enable the permission for family members. Else it's turned off by default).

Neat! I’m sold on that feature. Thanks.