Google's New Hologram Call Is Better Than Any Video Call
The screen lights up and before me sits a deceptively real 3D person. Starline is convincing and without glasses. But there's a catch.
It immediately feels more natural than all the Zoom calls of recent years: Google wants to revolutionize video telephony with Starline.
Image: BD
One of Google's most futuristic projects was presented in 2021 and it's called Starline. This is a kind of video telephony. A much better kind of video calling than what we know today.
The project manager in charge shakes my hand and welcomes me to his department. Then he leaves again and calls out, “We’ll see each other again soon!” He goes into one room and leads me into another. There is a table with a TV there. I sit down and the project manager from before appears in front of me.
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Of course it's not real. It's a computer image, or a hologram. Three-dimensional and completely natural. The trick: Cameras are placed around the TV that film the person in front of it and create a 3D image.
But that in itself is only half the magic. Holograms like these are already familiar from all sorts of computer glasses. In the case of Google's Starline, you don't need glasses. The hologram is right there, floating in front of the black TV wall. It doesn't matter if you take off your reading glasses, turn your head to the side or close one eye.
It feels instantly more natural than any Zoom call in recent years, and you forget the person isn't actually there.
The 3D effect is almost surrealistically realistic.
The trick behind it: The supposed TV is a special screen that specifically sends a separate image to each eye, giving the impression in your head that you're seeing a 3D person.
The effect is actually surreal, and after the initial amazement you quickly forget that there is no one else in the room and that you are just making a phone call. What is particularly amazing is the fact that, unlike Meta or Apple, you do not have to strap computer glasses to your face to make this kind of 3D phone call.
But the illusion isn’t entirely perfect. For one thing, you can see small graphical errors every now and then. For example, when the other person has almost webbed fingers between theirs for a split second. This happens when the software can’t cleanly separate the finger from the shirt and add the shirt to the hand.
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What’s most frustrating is what should be the simplest issue: the sound. The manager’s voice sounds flat, like a laptop speaker. When asked about this, the manager said it was still being improved. But other media professionals who have also tried Starline have found it noticeably less annoying. It’s possible that I’m a bit sensitive about this, as a radio presenter and former microphone lover.
But it would be funny if Google couldn’t manage the sound. I’m less confident about marketing the technology. To that end, Google has announced a partnership with computer specialist HP. The first devices are scheduled to be delivered to enterprise customers early next year.
After that, it will be seen whether this amazing technology is more than just a cool circus trick, and above all, whether it is unique enough that other manufacturers cannot immediately copy it.
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