Google’s 3D video chat booth allows two users to communicate as if they were nearby. (Image Credit: Google)
Earlier this year, Google showcased its Project Starline at the I/O conference. Now, the search engine giant released technical details behind this impressive next-gen 3D video chat booth. Project Starline could eventually replace one-on-one 2D video calls by offering a unique experience that seems as if the person on the other end is right in front of you. Without requiring a user to wear headsets or trackers, Starline could eventually offer the same feeling of presence as virtual or augmented reality in the future.
However, tricking the human brain into thinking that someone else is in front of the caller has been challenging, which Google ultimately detailed in the research paper. The image must be high-resolution and not contain any distracting artifacts, and needs to provide the correct appearance from the viewer’s position in the booth. Even then, the audio presents another obstacle because it needs to sound as if it’s sourced from the speaker.
Google’s engineers built the system around a 65” 60 Hz 8K panel to solve those issues. Then, the team surrounded it with three pods to capture color imagery and depth data. The system also features four tracking cameras, two loudspeakers, four microphones, and infrared projectors. As a result, this setup captures three depth maps and color images from four viewpoints, totaling seven video streams. Project Starline also captures audio at 44.1 kHz, encoded at 256 Kbps.
Starline project features a display and various tracking hardware. (Image Credit: Google)
Overall, the hardware generates a huge amount of data that must be transmitted. According to Google, its transmission bandwidth ranges from 30mbps to 100mbps, which depends on the user’s clothing texture detail and the magnitude of their gestures. Project Starline also contains two Quadro RTX 6000 and two Titan RTX graphic cards, which encode and decode all the data. Additionally, it has an average latency of 105.8 milliseconds.
Employees who used the 3D video chat booth across three sites say that it’s much better than standard video conferencing in terms of presence, personal connection, attentiveness, and reaction-gauging. Over nine months, 117 participants hosted 308 meetings in these booths. These meetings lasted for an average of 35 minutes.
While the entire system sounds quite promising, Google hasn’t released any details on pricing or commercialization possibilities. Now, Google is making Starline available in Google offices around the U.S.
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