Google Has Started Holographic Video Chats

Project Starline Google has been working hard over the past few years to create software experiences that give you the impression that you are in the same room as another human being, even if they are in a different time zone. Boring Google Meet, the company’s alternative to Zoom, is at one end of the spectrum. Daydream, a virtual reality platform that has since been abandoned and comes with goggles and hand controllers, is on the other, riskier end of the spectrum.

But none of those options satisfied Googler Clay Bavor, who is in charge of the company’s augmented reality and virtual reality initiatives. He desired completely photo-realistic, volumetric video conferences where the other party appears, sounds, and feels like they are seated across from you without using a headset.

So his crew constructed a video booth. Project Starline is the name of the new face-to-face meeting device prototype. Call it hyper-telepresence. You can give it any name you like. In either case, it is very bizarre.

Project Starline uses high-resolution cameras and specialized depth sensors to capture a user’s shape and appearance from various angles. After that, the software combines the data to produce an incredibly accurate, real-time 3d model. Google claimed to be using real-time compression, spatial audio, machine learning, and computer vision research. The result is the sensation that someone is sitting across from you.

Google Testing Of Project Starline 

For the first time, corporate locations are installing Project Starline, a light field display 3D communication platform.

Project Starline, a Google experiment that uses holographic light field displays to video chat with distant coworkers, will leave Google’s offices this year and begin testing at some actual corporate locations.

Google’s Project Starline technology, unveiled at the company’s I/O developer conference last year, records and shows 3D video between two people at two faraway places using enormous light field screens and various cameras.

As a part of the early-access program, Starline prototypes are being installed at the offices of Salesforce, We Work, T-Mobile, and Hackensack Meridian Health. Each participating business will receive two units to test out initially.

At Google’s own offices, 100 companies have reportedly already shown Project Starline. The installations outside Google are the next stage in evaluating how holographic video conversations might be utilized to have more lifelike virtual meetings without using VR or AR equipment.

How Does Google Project Starline Work? 

Project Starline has three main components:

● Depth sensors and cameras using specialized technology, numerous viewpoints of a person can be captured.

● Computer science progresses Custom software with innovative streaming and compression techniques

● Field of light display-A lifelike 3D rendering of a person is produced by special hardware.

Google created Project Starline booths that could show a lifelike 3D representation of the person on the other end of the line, replete with the ability to watch them from various angles, maintain eye contact, and even hear audio that seemed to be coming from their mouth.

Project Starline does this by using a set of three “pods” that contain four synchronized 1280×1024 monochrome cameras operating at 120 Hz, with filters to block near-infrared light so that extra display information is not mistakenly picked up, two above the display on the left and right sides, and one centered below the display.

An additional RGB camera that collects the color required to represent a person in 3D space accurately is located in the bottom pod. These pods also have four cardioid microphones, which aid the system in accurately recreating the source of the sound when it eventually recreates the person on the other end.

Many gigabits per second of data are produced as a result.

To transmit this 3D picture via current networks, Google created unique streaming and compression algorithms that significantly lower the amount of data. Google also created a light field display that presents a three-dimensional, lifelike image of a person sitting just before you.

Google’s algorithm can modify the visuals you view in the light field display to match your perspective as you move your head and torso. It generates a sensation of depth and volume without using extra glasses or headsets. You can speak normally, gesture, and make eye contact.

Google Project Starline May Experience the Following Difficulties with Customer Acceptance 

It requires complex, specifically designed equipment that is only available in a small number of Google offices. The company demonstrated it to media and healthcare clients to receive early feedback. Later this year, pilot installations in the enterprise room are planned. Google, on the other hand, declared that its goal is to make Project Starline technology more accessible and affordable while also integrating some of the new features into its existing communication tools.

FAQ’s 

Will Starline project technology benefit remote workings? 

For most global organizations, remote working is already the norm, and this trend is predicted to last for quite some time. For the convenience of the employees, several businesses have even permitted the continuance of remote working practices even after offices around the world resumed regular operations. All of the videoconferencing platforms would receive an unparalleled boost from this trend. A game-changer in the industry could result from Project Starline if it succeeds in its goals. 

Google thinks the technology could improve remote customer connections by producing a more instantaneous sensation of presence than regular video chats.

When will the Starline project be available to the public? 

The starting project’s availability to the general public is not yet known. Regular customers will not be using this technology because it is currently only being implemented for corporate use in a small number of test sites. Google declared that Project Starline is entering its “next beta phase” at Cloud Next 2022, making it available to some companies. However, the general public cannot utilize it.

Final Words 

Google has been working on Project Starline for a few years, a technology project that combines advancements in hardware and software to enable friends, relatives, and employees to feel they are together, even if they may be physically away, for a while to address this challenge. 

With project Starline’s custom-built hardware and highly specialized equipment, Google is already testing Project Starline in a few of its workplaces.