Google and HP To Release 3D Video Calling

Google and HP have pulled back the curtain on a new 3D video communications platform called “Project Starline,” which it plans on rolling out this year.

Why It Clicks: Despite videoconferencing becoming an economic lifesaver during COVID lockdown, Zoom fatigue is the real deal — our brain doesn’t do well with being in virtual meetings all day. But if Starline can help ease that feeling, it could be a big hit (if you can afford the tech).

Behind the Tech: Starline hopes to make video calls feel as if the person you’re speaking with is right there in the room with you.

• Starline doesn’t require the use of smart glasses or a headset. Instead, it uses feeds from six cameras that generate a real-time 3D video on a specialized desktop screen called a “light-field display.”
• According to WSJ, these displays “simulate depth by projecting different angles of the images to each of our eyes.”
• Additionally, Google uses AI to track the positions of users’ mouths and ears, so the audio is transmitted in a way that feels like they’re in front of you.
• Google and HP haven’t revealed the price for Starline yet, but the tech will be compatible with Google Meet and Zoom.

The Future: Google and HP are putting a premium on how much the tech will ease the cognitive burden of videoconferencing — something they say the data already proves. Google also says that, in one study, users were “more animated on Starline calls than they were on 2D video chats, using significantly more hand gestures, head nods, and eyebrow movements.” That’s important when so much of effective communication is nonverbal.

Google and HP have already tested the technology with select enterprise partners, including Salesforce and T-Mobile. We won’t be surprised if every blue-chip C-suite exec gets a Starline set up by the summer.

Go Deeper: West Cancer Center out of Memphis, Tennessee, is also disrupting videoconferencing with hologram doctors. It’s Starline with legs!