Google has ‘begun commercializing’ Project Starline, its 3D video conferencing - or, as it calls it, its ‘magic window technology’, with a partnership with hardware manufacturer HP.
First announced back in 2021 amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, Starline aims to recreate the feeling of being in the same room as other people when that isn’t a possibility. Though face-to-face contact isn’t so much of a far-off fantasy anymore, Google is pushing on, with a press release touting ‘advancements in AI, 3D imaging, and other technologies’ as powering the product.
Starline, which ‘relies on custom-built hardware and highly specialized equipment’, was previously confined to Google offices and selected partners, but now the company is preparing to bring the hybrid work product to business customers by 2025 - starting with common video conferencing apps like Google Meet and Zoom.
The ‘future of collaboration’
HP’s President of Personal Systems, Alex Cho, is keen to stress that there’s much more to Starline’s than anything a basic webcam and microphone (or business laptop) can achieve.
“With more than half of meaning and intent communicated through body language versus words alone, an immersive collaboration experience plays an important role in creating authentic human connections in hybrid environments,” he says.
The official line in the press release is that tricking your brain into feeling as though you’re in the same room as a colleague increases attentiveness, memory recall, and, um, ‘an overall sense of presence.’
Google and HP almost certainly have research to push this narrative, but for this writer’s money, experiencing Starline solely through PR bluster and representative GIFs, the product feels superfluous, especially when the opening pitch is ‘you can talk, gesture, and make eye contact with another person’ - nothing new.
If offices want to invest in this technology, that’s their prerogative, but then - aren’t employees in the office anyway? Don’t the benefits of Starline’s ‘immersive collaboration’ rely on both participants of a conversation having access to Starline booths?
The simplicity of a webcam and microphone is that they’re compact and portable - built into almost every device in this day and age. Starline’s custom high-tech booths, like its bombastic name, not only feel like the antithesis of that, but also the ultimate premium. Though I’m prepared to eat my words later, my gut tells me Google will struggle to find enterprise customers thrilled about footing the bill.
