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Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

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Re: Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

#151

Post by nucleardog »

jcims wrote: post #93

It would be nice if there was a webcam on the market that took actual lenses so you could get free, legit depth of field. Paying $700 for a used DSLR that has a clean hdmi out is not appealing, especially when I have a mirrorless from the same company that could probably do the same with a firmware update (that will never come)

I think a cheaper solution would probably just be a depth sensing camera. Even a developer targeted Intel RealSense kit is only like $150. Consumer hardware could be much cheaper I imagine.

Once you have depth information integrated with a camera, then it should be pretty trivial to do background removal.

Whereas a 35mm f1.8 from Nikon is like $200 and whatever you mount it to is still going to need to do auto focusing and a bunch of other camera-y stuff to make it accessible to non photo geeks and then you’re going to need an off camera microphone so the entire call isn’t listening to your autofocus motor and...

Re: Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

#152

Post by ajsnigrutin »

mcv wrote: post #139
systemvoltage wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this sort of a Fizz Buzz for a UX/UI design professional? I don't mean to demean anyone, but I see this sort of a thing literally everywhere. Hiding important and absolutely crucial information (that can make or break your product) in the name of minimalism. Coming out of a company that has one of the highest hiring bars for software engineering, and yet, their products have such an awful UX/UI. This isn't an e…

Exactly. Everybody does this. In anything using video, UI elements apparently need to be hidden as much as possible. In virtual meetings, Youtube, and it's often an option in games. And sometimes it's great, because you get to focus on the content, and sometimes it's not, because you lose control. It's something that should be optional or configurable. It's great to have shortcuts for the most common commands (like s…

But this has been a solved problem for ages.... just move your mouse a tiny bit, and all the controls are exposed, with large, visible buttons, help text, etc, click whatever you need to, and the controls slowly dissapear, revealing the video.

Having to find the exact spot to hover your mouse is a bad UX

Re: Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

#153

Post by drevil-v2 »

systemvoltage wrote: post #44
neilpanchal wrote: post #32

Aside: Imagine you’re driving down the road and you need to make a right turn. Well, for some reason the steering wheel is stowed away and disappeared! You need to hover your hand around the center console in a specific area to be able to expose it. Out comes the steering wheel and now you can make a right turn. Google UX/UI team: Please fucking make the mute/unmute button visible at all times.

Isn't this sort of a Fizz Buzz for a UX/UI design professional? I don't mean to demean anyone, but I see this sort of a thing literally everywhere. Hiding important and absolutely crucial information (that can make or break your product) in the name of minimalism. Coming out of a company that has one of the highest hiring bars for software engineering, and yet, their products have such an awful UX/UI. This isn't an e…

> their products have such an awful UX/UI

This is true. I find Android UI so offensive that if I did not have iOS as an alternate I probably would carry a dumb phone and live like a monk. I can’t stand the miles of white space and brightly coloured tiny UI controls.

Evokes such a visceral reaction in me that even I am startled at times haha

Re: Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

#155

Post by tssva »

systemvoltage wrote: post #44
neilpanchal wrote: post #32

Aside: Imagine you’re driving down the road and you need to make a right turn. Well, for some reason the steering wheel is stowed away and disappeared! You need to hover your hand around the center console in a specific area to be able to expose it. Out comes the steering wheel and now you can make a right turn. Google UX/UI team: Please fucking make the mute/unmute button visible at all times.

Isn't this sort of a Fizz Buzz for a UX/UI design professional? I don't mean to demean anyone, but I see this sort of a thing literally everywhere. Hiding important and absolutely crucial information (that can make or break your product) in the name of minimalism. Coming out of a company that has one of the highest hiring bars for software engineering, and yet, their products have such an awful UX/UI. This isn't an e…

"Hiding important and absolutely crucial information"

If we want to give awards for this my vote would go to Apple. I find their products to be horrific when it comes to completely undiscoverable features. iOS is bad on its own but the Apple TV is a total train wreck. I couldn't get rid of that thing with its awful interface and remote fast enough.

Re: Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

#156

Post by tssva »

loosescrews wrote: post #48
deelowe wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try using meet, teams and zoom on high latency and/or low bandwidth connections.

Meet seems to work better on poor connections, but it does it with a significantly more CPU intensive codec (VP9?). As a result, it only seems to work well if you have a powerful CPU. If you have a weak CPU, Zoom seems to work much better.

My only experience with Meet on a weak CPU is my daughter using it for remote learning on her school supplied Chromebook which uses a Mediatek processor from 2015 which has 2 A-53 and 2 A-72 cores. Meet performs fine on the platform.

Re: Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

#157

Post by sillysaurusx »

virgilp wrote: post #140
sillysaurusx wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. In the future, that'll be `npm install ml-cat` followed by `MLCat = require('ml-cat'); MLCat.isCat(image)` It might not be npm, but something like that is probably inevitable. The reason it seems so unlikely is because the tooling isn't there yet. No one even agrees how ML code should look, let alone how libs should be distributed to end users. But I saw the transformation for JS in 2008.

the range of problems you can solve with ML/AI is simply too wide for there to be fully-canned solutions for everything. Sure, there will be canned solutions for _some_ things - maybe even for cat detection, because it's fun so why not. But, a library that uses AI to optimize the production of your business' flux capacitors? Ain't gonna happen, you need to build that yourself. To have a library/product that solves pr…

Mm, it's a bit like arguing that "the range of text editor customization is simply too wide for there to be fully-canned solutions for everything." Meanwhile, elisp wiki go brr.

I think ML solutions will increasingly take the form of an elisp script rather than a python library, but it'll take a little while to get there.

Re: Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

#158

Post by tester34 »

neilpanchal wrote: post #32

Aside: Imagine you’re driving down the road and you need to make a right turn. Well, for some reason the steering wheel is stowed away and disappeared! You need to hover your hand around the center console in a specific area to be able to expose it. Out comes the steering wheel and now you can make a right turn. Google UX/UI team: Please fucking make the mute/unmute button visible at all times.

The only software that gets vide-co right is probably Discord

I used MS Teams and zoom and both are decent (ms teams works fine for school)

but it's insanely unbelievable that this kind of software lacks of features that gaming communities had probably 20 years ago

PUSH TO TALK is probably one of the most important features of any voice software. The lack of it is big WTF.

It gives you 100% control over when you're talking and you don't have to alt-tab between programs in order to "mute" yourself.

You can bind it to e.g MOUSE3 (scroll-push) and it works fine with other programs, games and stuff. Switching between muted/unmuted is different thing.

From somebody who uses/used ventrilo, mumble, teamspeak and nowadays discord for like last 12 years for hours per day, almost everyday.

Re: Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

#159

Post by eCa »

amf12 wrote: post #137
hota_mazi wrote: post #47

Google finally catching up to where Zoom was two years ago. Can we get a mute button visible at all times before 2024?

> Can we get a mute button visible at all times before 2024? Is it just me or is the button visible at all times? I could see the button visible on the bottom of the screen at all times I used meet during a session with friends. I even tried it right now to make sure.

It’s not. Move the pointer outside of the window and the bottom bar should hide.

Re: Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

#160

Post by nathancahill »

captn3m0 wrote: post #41
askvictor wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More important than the button is the status indicator - I need to know if the call is muted or not. Even better, promote it to an OS-level icon/badge/overlay. If my mic is actively in use, please make it blindingly obvious.

The color indicator for mic on/off is terribly for Meet.

Absolutely horrible. Both states are equally plausible in the UI.
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