Google is calling it the future of communication. And it might be. We don’t know yet (unless you’re from the future - if so, I have a lot of questions).
This new platform is called Google Beam. In short, it is a video teleconferencing system with 6 cameras that can create a 3D-looking image of whoever you are talking to. It is intended to bring depth and realism to conversations.
It uses “Google’s latest breakthroughs in AI, 3D imaging, and light field rendering."
They’ve designed it to work with Meet (of course) and Zoom. From the images that they have posted, it looks like a large piece of hardware. They’ve partnered with HP to deliver the first gen.
It will likely be geared towards corporate customers because of the size and cost (I don’t know how much it will cost yet but it won’t be cheap).
I think that it’s an interesting idea. I’m not sure if it’s a proof-of-concept or if they envision rolling this out to the average non-corporate user. All of the images/videos that I’ve seen of it have people talking one-to-one. That seems limiting from the start (what if there are three of us?). Also, if it needs to have the large unit with 6 cameras and probably other hardware, it isn’t practical for the average person who uses their smartphone.
Still, it looks really interesting and this is how we progress with technology.
Here is the project’s website in case you want more information - https://starline.google/(the original name for the project was starline)
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