Google Starts Real-World Testing Its Giant Video Chat Booths

A year after announcing its “Project Starline” video booth idea, Google says it’s expanded enterprise testing with third parties and is working on making Starline “more accessible,” reports Ars Technica. From the report: Project Starline basically asks the question, “What if Zoom was a giant, sit-down arcade machine?” While the home console version of video chat just involves a tiny camera above your laptop screen, Starline brings 3D video chat to life in a 7×7-foot sit-down booth, with seemingly no regard given to cost, size, or commercialization. The goal is to make it seem like the other person is in the room with you, and Google categorizes it as a “research project.” As for what Starline actually is, a Google Research paper contains a good amount of detail. The display side of the video booth features 14 cameras and 16 IR projectors, which all work to create, capture, and track a real-time, photorealistic 3D avatar of the user. Four microphones and two speakers don’t just play back speech; spatialized audio and dynamic beamforming supposedly make the speech sound like it’s coming out of the avatar’s mouth.

People who have tried Starline seem to like it, but considering you have to be personally invited by Google to try it, that’s only a very small handful of people. It’s hard to imagine much of a market for what must be a six-figure video booth the size of a small bathroom, but Google is pushing ahead with more testing. A Google statement says: “Today, Project Starline prototypes are found in Google offices across the US, with employees using the technology every day for meetings, employee onboarding and building rapport between colleagues.” The company continues: “Beyond Google employees, we’ve also invited more than 100 enterprise partners in areas like media, healthcare and retail to participate in demos at Google’s offices and provide us with feedback on the experience and applications to their businesses. We see many ways Project Starline can add business value across a number of industries, and we remain focused on making it more accessible.” Salesforce, WeWork, T-Mobile, and Hackensack Meridian Health have signed up to try it. WeWork, a company based around renting too-expensive-to-own office space, seems particularly enthused with the idea.