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Google Reveals Latest Project Starline Prototype, Its Light-field Telepresence Platform

May 16, 2023 From roadtovr

It’s been nearly two years since Google first introduced Project Starline, a telepresence platform designed to facilitate natural-feeling remote communication between two people. While we haven’t heard much about the project, the company recently confirmed it’s still ongoing, recently revealing a more compact and affordable system.

Project Starline was first revealed back at Google I/O 2021, with the goal of making it feel like you’re sitting in front of another person, even though they’re remote. Using a bevy of sensors, a light-field display, spatial audio, and novel compression, Google says it’s able to recreate a very immersive likeness of the person on the other end.

We haven’t heard too much about Project Starline in the intervening years, but last week at Google I/O 2023 we got a small update confirming the project is still ongoing and improving:

The update introduces the latest prototype which shrinks the system somewhat from a large booth to a more streamlined setup that appears to use commodity depth cameras and fewer of them. Google says that makes the latest prototype “more practical,” and says that select companies are trialing the new version.

“Our earlier Project Starline prototypes took up an entire room, requiring complex hardware such as infrared light emitters and special cameras to create a live 3D model of the person you were talking to. While the results were impressive, the size and complexity of the system made it challenging to bring to many of today’s offices,” the company writes in an update on the project. “So for our latest prototype, we developed new AI techniques that only require a few standard cameras to produce higher quality, lifelike 3D images. Thanks to these advancements, our prototype now resembles a more traditional video conferencing system—going from the size of a restaurant booth to a flat-screen TV—that’s more deployable and accessible.”

Despite shrinking things down, Google confirms the system still uses a light-field display which creates a true 3D image without the need for glasses. However we still don’t know much about the specific display being used.

The entire premise behind Project Starline is that representing remote participants more realistically leads to better conversations. To that end the company recently pointed out several studies providing evidence that the system can bring “improved conversation dynamics, reduced video meeting fatigue, and increased attentiveness.”

Google Discontinues Glass Enterprise Edition Smartglasses

March 16, 2023 From roadtovr

Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2, the company’s work-focused version of its iconic but once maligned smartglasses, is being discontinued.

Google says in a device support FAQ that, starting March 15th, it will no longer sell Glass Enterprise 2, adding that it will only support the device until September 15th, 2023.

While the company says it’s not pushing out any more software for Glass Enterprise Edition after that date, however its most recent system images will remain publicly available until at least April 1st, 2024.

Launched in 2017, Google Glass for enterprise was a revival of sorts, as the company had ceased production of the storied device in 2015.

Google Glass Explorer Edition | Image courtesy Alphabet

Starting in 2012, the company was hoping to seed the device among prosumers with its Glass Explorer Editions, although public backlash spawned the term “glasshole,” putting a severe dent in Google’s ambitions to launch a more consumer-focused version of the device.

Google hasn’t explained why it’s killing off Glass for enterprise. In response to PC Mag, a Google spokesperson left this comment:

“For years, we’ve been building AR into many Google products and we’ll continue to look at ways to bring new, innovative AR experiences across our product portfolio.”

To be fair, Google probably has bigger fish to fry, and the aging smartglasses platform may well be replaced sooner rather than later. Google said last summer it would be conducting real world tests of its early AR prototypes, emphasizing things like real-time translation and AR turn-by-turn navigation.

There’s also the issue of emerging competition. Apple’s upcoming mixed reality (MR) headset is rumored to arrive sometime in mid-2023, while Meta is prepping multiple generations of its MR Quest headsets.

Granted, these MR headsets probably won’t be the model workhorses, although many companies see MR headsets as a steppingstone in preparation for the sort of all-day AR glasses industry is hoping to commercialize in the near future.

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To be clear, Google Glass is a style of smartglass(es) and not an AR device as such; Glass provides a single heads-up display (HUD) that doesn’t place digital imagery naturally in the user’s perceived environment, like with HoloLens 2 or Magic Leap 2, but rather flatly projects the sort of useful information you might also see on a smartwatch. You can learn more about the differences between AR headsets and smartglasses here.

Samsung Partners with Google & Qualcomm to Release Android-powered XR Device

February 6, 2023 From roadtovr

Samsung’s 2023 Unpacked event was all about the company’s Galaxy S23 hardware, although at the end of its hour-long presentation the South Korean tech giant announced it was working with Qualcomm and Google to develop an XR device.

TM Roh, Samsung’s president and head of mobile experiences, didn’t reveal any more than what was said on stage, namely the existence of the partnership itself, however speaking to The Washington Post he announced the companies are “getting there,” and that the XR device was “not too far away.”

It’s not clear what sort of device it will be, since ‘XR’ essentially covers the entire gamut of immersive headsets, including augmented reality (e.g. HoloLens), virtual reality (e.g. Meta Quest 2), and mixed reality (e.g. Meta Quest Pro). Our best bet though is on a standalone MR headset, which uses passthrough cameras to layer computer-generated visuals on top of the user’s physical space, essentially replicating the experience you might have on a see-through AR display, albeit on a VR device.

MR headsets include Meta Quest Pro, HTC Vive XR Elite, and Apple’s rumored headset which is reportedly set to arrive sometime early this year at around $3,000.

As you’d imagine, Qualcomm is tasked with building the XR device’s chipset, while Samsung will manufacture the headset’s hardware. Software will be provided by Google; WaPo reports it will be running on “the unannounced version of the Android operating system meant specifically to power devices such as wearable displays.”

With the exception of Qualcomm, which not only produces XR-specific chipsets but also regularly shows of its own XR headset references, both Samsung and Google’s commitment to the project are kind of a long-awaited homecoming.

Samsung was one of the first truly massive tech companies to develop VR hardware. Starting in 2014, the company partnered with Meta (then Oculus) on the Samsung Gear VR platform, which paired the Galaxy Note 4 phone with a headset shell sporting an optimized intertidal Measurment unit (IMU). Samsung Gear VR was essentially the first high-quality 3DOF mobile VR experience offered to consumers, marking a stark departure from the sort VR experiences you could find on Google’s more open, but decidedly lower-quality Cardboard platform.

Notably, Samsung hasn’t released a VR product since the launch of the PC VR headset Odyssey+. Like seemingly all big tech firms these days, it appears to be working on AR glasses.

Smasung Odyssey+ | Image courtesy Samsung

Google, although reportedly also working on AR device, similarly shelved its VR ambitions when it discontinued its standalone Daydream platform in 2019, something which at the time was essentially the nail in the company’s Android VR coffin. Google previously worked with Lenovo in 2018 to produce its first and only standalone Daydream VR headset, the Lenovo Mirage Solo, which offered 6DOF room-scale tracking while providing only a single 3DOF clicker-style controller.

Since then, Google has only really been vocal about its experimental system for immersive video chatting, Project Starline, which lets people engage in face-to-face video chats without needing an AR or VR headset.

Typically, we’d say Mobile World Congress 2023 would be the next logical place to share more info about the XR hardware partnership. Samsung, Qualcomm and Google will all be present, so we may just learn more there when the week-long event kicks off in Barcelona, Spain on February 27th.

Google’s Project Starline Starts Real-world Testing, Bringing Light-field Video Calls to Partners

October 14, 2022 From roadtovr

Google’s Project Starline is an experimental system for immersive video chatting that aims to close the distance between people without needing an AR or VR headset. At Google’s annual Cloud Next conference, the company announced it’s rolling out the booth-sized device in early access to select enterprise partners, officially taking it beyond the walls of Google’s offices for the first time.

The company says in a blogpost that early access to Project Starline is starting this year, with the installation of prototypes at the offices of Salesforce, WeWork, T-Mobile, and Hackensack Meridian Health.

Project Starline provides a glasses-free 3D chatting experience thanks to its host of sensors, light-field display, spatial audio, computer vision, and novel compression to make the whole experience possible over the web. The end effect is you get to have a natural face-to-face conversation with another person, including eye contact.

Starline prototypes have already been in use in Google offices across the US since late 2021, something the company says aims to increase employee presence, attentiveness, and productivity compared to traditional video calling solutions. Since then, Google says it’s showed off the tech to 100 enterprise partners in areas such as media, healthcare, and retail to see where it needs to improve.

“As we build the future of hybrid work together with our enterprise partners, we look forward to seeing how Project Starline can help employees form strong ties with one another, doctors form meaningful bonds with their patients, and salespeople make deeper connections with their clients and customers,” says Andrew Nartker, Starline’s Director of Product Management. “Whether you’re presenting to a colleague or just sitting down for a coffee chat, we want the Project Starline experience to feel natural, as if the person is sitting in the same room as you. More broadly, we are eager to enable workforces to feel energized and productive when collaborating from afar.”

The company says it will share more about its early access program at some point next year, as it no doubt aims to further tailor Starline into a shippable product.

Google to Publicly Test AR Prototypes Starting in August

July 20, 2022 From roadtovr

Google announced that the company will be conducting real world tests of its early AR prototypes starting next month.

The company says in a blog post that it plans to to test AR prototypes in the real world as a way to “better understand how these devices can help people in their everyday lives.”

Some of the key areas Google is emphasizing are things like real-time translation and AR turn-by-turn navigation.

“We’ll begin small-scale testing in public settings with AR prototypes worn by a few dozen Googlers and select trusted testers,” the company says. “These prototypes will include in-lens displays, microphones and cameras — but they’ll have strict limitations on what they can do. For example, our AR prototypes don’t support photography and videography, though image data will be used to enable experiences like translating the menu in front of you or showing you directions to a nearby coffee shop.”

Critically, Google says the research prototypes look like “normal glasses.” This was no doubt partially informed by their rocky experience with Google Glass starting in 2013 which spawned the neologism ‘glasshole’ due to the device’s relative high visibility and supposed privacy concerns of wearing a camera. Glass is still around, albeit only for enterprise users.

Google says it wants to take it slow with its AR glasses though and include a “strong focus on ensuring the privacy of the testers and those around them.” Although the units will clearly pack camera sensors to do its job, Google says after translating text or doing turn-by-turn directions, the image data will be deleted unless it will be used for analysis and debugging.

“In that case, the image data is first scrubbed for sensitive content, including faces and license plates. Then it is stored on a secure server, with limited access by a small number of Googlers for analysis and debugging. After 30 days, it is deleted,” the company says in a FAQ on the program.

Testers will also be prohibited from testing in public places such as schools, government buildings, healthcare locations, places of worship, social service locations, areas meant for children (e.g., schools and playgrounds), emergency response locations, rallies or protests, and other similar places. For navigation, testers are also banned from using AR prototypes while driving, operating heavy machinery, and engaging in sports.

Google’s inclusion of displays in its public prototypes is a step beyond Meta’s Project Aria, which started on-campus testing of AR prototypes in 2020 that notably included everything you’d expect from AR glasses but the displays. We’re waiting to hear more about Meta’s Project Nazare however, which are said to be “true augmented reality glasses.”

As for Apple, well, there’s only rumors out there for now on specifications and target launch dates for the company’s MR headset and follow-up AR glasses. It’s clear however we’re inching ever closer to a future where the biggest names in established tech will directly compete to become leading forces in what many have hailed as a class of device which will eventually replace your smartphone.