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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

#501

Post by wpietri »

varjag wrote: post #424
wpietri wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you talk to daily Instagram users, you'll find out what problem it solves. In particular, it was the lucky winner in the crowd of early photo-sharing-on-mobile apps. But the demand for that was proven by early photo sharing successes like Flickr. Realizing people would want to do that on their pocket camera device is not a big leap given what people were already doing to share photos from their mid-aughts cameraph…

I (and probably everyone in immigrant communities) will get such a thing to my family and our parents as soon as we can afford it.

That's an interesting hypothesis, but I'd need to see some data. Since you haven't experienced it, you would be buying based on hype, on the concept of 3D. As I said, I'm not arguing that the novelty is appealing. I'm saying that once people actually experience it and the novelty wears off, people stop caring.

Another issue here is that this is being sold as like "being there", but it's more like "being there at a jail" where you can see person but can't get close to them, can't touch them, can't hand them anything. I have immigrant friends who do calls with their parents basically daily. They do it with mid-grade consumer tech, even though they could easily afford big screens and high-res cameras. That suggests to me that image size and video quality are not as important for this market as one might think at first blush.

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

#502

Post by robertlagrant »

munk-a wrote: post #90
robertlagrant wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Minecraft wasn't an important technology. It's a game built with important technologies.

I disagree - I would agree that Minecraft wasn't a novel technology, just like Linux wasn't a novel technology - it was an alternative version of Minix. Additionally Zoom isn't a novel technology, it isn't even particularly interesting technically when compared to other video conferencing solutions - but over the past year it's been incredibly important to a number of people. I think the OC slightly missed the mark i…

> just like Linux wasn't a novel technology - it was an alternative version of Minix

No, Linux differed from Minix in utterly fundamental ways outlined in the correspondence between Linus Torvalds and Andrew Tenenbaum.

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

#503

Post by mhalle »

chewxy wrote: post #271
codeecan wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://electronics.sony.com/spatial-reality-display/p/elfsr...

This is a 3D monitor. Not a light field display like Starline. The traditional glasses free 3d monitors rely on special coatings on the glass to "split" the direction of a pixel. Some coatings are electronically controlled (like Sony's), some are physical (lenticular filters) It still displays a 2D projection of a 3D image, but twice. By contrast, my understanding is lightfield displays projects the entire volume. So…

The term light field display includes lenticulars and parallax barrier displays (and holograms and volumetric displays). They are all different ways of carving up, sweeping out, or multiplexing a light field.

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

#504

Post by crazygringo »

lmm wrote: post #378
blululu wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That exists now. If you Google search ‘speed test’ (on mobile at least) the first result is now a simple speed test provided by Google.

Not for me, either on android or desktop chrome.

I don't know why, it's been around for at least 5 years. Maybe you have a Chrome extension blocking it.

Anyways, Google absolutely does provide that, as well as additional analysis/warnings in YouTube.

So Google's doing exactly what you're asking for.

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

#505

Post by CountHackulus »

bullfightonmars wrote: post #51
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…

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.

I've used the Echo Show 10 with the drop-in feature for my mom with vision issues (basically can't use touchscreens) and it works fairly well. That said I fully agree with you that something like this would be really excellent. A full-sized person's face and head in 3D is far easier to recognize and understand than a poorly lit 2D 10" display.

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

#506

Post by gradschool »

karolist wrote: post #381
JonathanFly wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>currently I don't have stereoscopic vision >my brain CAN do it, if I had the correct images sent to my eyes somehow. >when I watched Avatar, an actually well made 3D movie, it literally felt more real than reality Buy an Oculus Quest 2. (Or any VR headset, but that's the best value at the moment.) It sends seperate images to each eye. You should get that same 'more real than reality' feeling. It may even train your…

I'm someone with Amblyopia and would love to hear people's experiences using this. Seems like the project made some waves on reddit and kind of died down. I have bought Oculus Quest last year in anticipation of trying this but the pandemic and work pushed it out somewhat. Watching 3D movies in the theaters just gives me a headache but Oculus actually works fine, I've played a few games and it was amazing...

I have that too. My right eye keeps steady while my left eye floats around at random (or at least that's how the linguistic side of my brain describes it). It would be great if a VR headset could track the left eye position and translate the image accordingly.

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

#507

Post by CountHackulus »

deadfire55 wrote: post #304
pinko wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can echo (no pun intended) this experience with the Echo Show, but I would love something much bigger and higher-def. My family is separated long-distance, and I would pay big money for a higher-def "window to another home" product.

Facebook has a 15.6" version of this called Portal Plus. I can't speak to the quality/value of it.

It looks really nice, but I'd really like a larger one that supports drop-in. Being able to just show up without having to deal with an elderly relative trying to find a button to answer is really a killer feature.

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

#508

Post by sbr464 »

unethical_ban wrote: post #142
adam wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

That "the only thing missing" is the main reason to go to many conferences. A lot of people (those with less social desire/social skills) seem to resent it, but it is true: Networking and casual technical conversations that happen afterhours are the draw for many technical conferences. Talks can be good, and occasionally there are well-constructed lab sandboxes. But mostly, it's going and speed-dating with peers and…

A seemingly obscure feature of meeting in person or visiting a vendor at their own offices, it offers a chance to peak behind the curtains, to feel social cues that are hard to explain/justify. There’s a lot of bulls*t in the corporate/smb world.

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

#509

Post by interestica »

interestica wrote: post #202
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.

I didn't realize the current state of prison phone systems in both the US and Canada...

2020 notes:

>["Why are jail phone calls so expensive?"] (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-are-jail-phone-calls-so-exp...) OCTOBER 13, 2020

> ["A mom’s $6,000 phone bill in three months: The push to rein in Ontario’s costly prison phone system"](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-activists-see...) JANUARY 30, 2020

> [Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice Act] (https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/6389) 03/25/2020

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

#510

Post by jlebar »

anon_tor_12345 wrote: post #372
jlebar wrote: 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.

i got curious (since you said you'd seen this years ago) and found my way to your cppcon 2016 talk. good talk but in particular i want to congratulate you on the weaving pun (first multithreaded tech).

Haha thanks. Not my pun, I just saw it somewhere on the internet!
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