I thought I could grab the apple. The fruit was in his hand as he sat across from me. My brain told me it was right there, it was red and shiny. Lawrence and the apple were projected in front of me through Project Starline.
Project Starline is a 3D video chat booth that was introduced at the I/O conference. If you slide into a booth, your image is supposed to be projected to another booth in real time, as if you are sitting with someone else. The video showed family and friends connecting with each other using Starline and the virtual recreations looked very realistic. One person says in the video that it was mind blowing. I have seen a lot but this is the first time I have seen it.
Until now, the project has been kept under wraps. I was invited to check out Starline by the company, and I wanted to see if it lived up to the hype.
Andrew Nartker is the director of product management for Starline. Nartker and I sat across from each other at a table in a conference room. The experience of Starline is described as a magic window that allows you to feel connected with other people.
We were testing Starline. A lot of the space was taken up by the machine in a small conference room. There was a bench with a seat cushion on the other side. The empty cushion in the other Starline booth was displayed on the other side. More than a dozen cameras and sensors were pointed at me when I sat down. I could see my movements were being tracked.
When Nartker slid into his booth at Starline, the tech faded away and we were able to pick up the conversation again.
Starline makes a great representation of the person you're talking to. When I shook their hands, Nartker and Lawrence looked the same. Shadows behind them helped sell the effect. Lawrence had an apple in front of him.
The whole thing was very natural. It felt like we were talking because there was no apparent lag in their movements. There weren't any weird delays. I was making genuine eye contact with full-size virtual humans instead of squinting at a small window, which made it easier to believe I was with someone.
Starline is so convincing because you are not just looking at a screen but a series oflens in front of a screen. The principle is similar to holograms that can show a different image when you rock them back and forth. Tracking your eyes allows Starline to know where to display the images to you.
It wasn't perfect. You could see that the person was being recreated, for example, a head could not be perfect, and the top of Lawrence's hair could get jittery. If the person you are talking to moves to the bounds of what Starline was reconstructing, they will become fuzzy, glitchy, and disappear.
Starline makes video chatting better. It can be used for one-on-one conversations in places like a doctor's office or a customer service environment. Starline has some limits. The Starline booth is large and full of technology. You will need two to be able to use Starline, and Nartker wouldn't give me a price.
Who will be able to try it out is growing by the day. The company said it would be installing Starline booths. The technology will be part of an early access program for companies. More than 100 enterprise partners have been invited by the company to try Starline at the company's offices.
At this point, it's not a product.
There is still a long way to go before Starline is widely available to purchase. The technology is very exciting and a breakthrough in the space. It isn't a product at this time.
Nartker talked about how Starline improved telepresence by replicating in-person face-to-face conversations. I am now on board with the idea that better telepresence can have a meaningful impact on virtual interactions, even if it isn't a giant video, and I feel as if something like Starline must be in our future, even if it isn't a giant video.
I was struck by how he made a similar pitch for a set of vastly different devices. The magic of virtual reality is that it immediately convinces your mind that you are in another place and with people who are there. He talked about how the interview could be done with him as a hologram in the future.
Two of the biggest tech companies are trying to improve their virtual presence. Meta is in favor of the concept of the metaverse, which would benefit both of them. It's not practical or desirable for most people to use chat booths and expensive mixed reality displays, but maybe the thing that really takes off will happen somewhere in the middle.
Nartker ended our conversation with a virtual fistbump. I assumed that I wouldn't actually feel Nartker's knuckle hitting me. When we went in for the surgery, my brain thought my fist would hit the floor, and I felt a sensation in my hand. Even though we were not in the same room, we laughed about the shared moment.
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