Google is serious about giant video chat booths, and begins real-world testing

Google is getting serious about the wild “Project Starline” video kiosk idea. Mysterious Project announced As part of the Google I/O 2021 keyword but initially it was overshadowed by more realistic ads from Wear OS and Android. It’s been a year now and Google is still moving forward with the idea, Announcing the Extended Enterprise Exam with third parties. Google says it is also working to make Starline “more accessible”.

Project Starline asks the basic question, “What if Zoom was a giant sit-down arcade machine?” Whereas the main console version of the video chat only includes a small camera above the laptop screen, Starline brings 3D video chat to life in a 7-by-7-foot booth, seemingly unconcerned with cost, size or marketing. The goal is to make it look like the other person is in the room with you, and Google classifies it as a “research project.”

As for what Starline actually is, a Google search sheet It contains a fair amount of detail. The display side of the video kiosk includes 14 cameras and 16 infrared projectors, all of which create, capture and track a 3D user avatar in real time. Four microphones and two speakers not only operate speech; Supposedly, spatial sound and dynamic radial modulation make speech sound like it’s coming out of the avatar’s mouth.

Sending a 3D avatar via Google’s video chat connection allows eye line correction, which is an ongoing problem in regular video chat. When a webcam at the top of the screen makes it impossible to make eye contact while looking at the screen, the 3D avatar can manipulate the separation between the center of the camera and the center of the screen, allowing for mutual eye contact. Google is processing all of this data in a powerful dual Xeon workstation with “four NVIDIA GPUs (two Quadro RTX 6000 and two Titan RTX).”

The display is a 65″, 8kHz, 60Hz microscopic lenticular panel that produces a 3D glasses-free display of a life-size glyph. It’s basically a big Nintendo 3DS game — but with an even bigger sweet spot thanks to head tracking. The other side of the cab features infrared backlighting and a fairly rigid tabletop to confine the user to the ideal spot for the 3D screen and to limit the scope of the entire avatar creation system. Google even built a small partition between the seat and the screen to hide the bottom of the screen. Instead of awkwardly placing an avatar once you reach the bottom of the screen, a physical blockage above the bottom of the screen should trick your brain into thinking the rest of the avatar is behind the barrier. Google seems committed to controlling every possible variable with Project Starline, so much so that the kiosk even features its own lighting system, with both diffuse visible lighting to help capture 3D textures and a large infrared backlight to aid in 3D imaging,

People who have tried Starline Seems like But given that you have to be personally invited by Google to try it out, that’s only a very small handful of people. It’s hard to imagine much of the market for what should be a six-figure video kiosk the size of a small bathroom, but Google is pressing ahead with more testing. “Today, Project Starline prototypes are found in Google offices across the United States, where employees use technology every day to meet, prepare employees, and build rapport among colleagues,” Google’s statement says.

The company continues: “Apart from Google employees, we have also invited more than 100 corporate partners in areas such as media, healthcare and retail to participate in demos in Google offices and provide us with feedback about the experience and applications for their businesses. We see the many ways Project Starline can add value. Business is across a number of industries, and we remain focused on making it more accessible.” Salesforce, WeWork, T-Mobile and Hackensack Meridian Health have signed up to try it out. WeWork, a company that relies on renting very expensive office space, seems particularly excited about the idea.

Google can talk all you want about ‘search’, but the company does it famous aggressiveness When it comes to killing things it doesn’t have hundreds of millions of users. Will there be any product here? Starline is adjacent to the huge enterprise meeting equipment market, but some limitations make Starline difficult for serious meetings. Enterprise meeting equipment is usually geared towards a large group sitting at a table, and the wide compatibility means anyone can connect to the meeting with almost any device. Starline works with only one person for one-on-one conversations, and you can only talk to other Starline kiosks. Is there a market for VIP-to-VIP call booths, such as a modern version of the red boss phone?