with the Starline project, Google wants to transform videoconferencing

Silicon Valley giant Google is developing Project Starline, which is supposed to make the person you’re talking to seem like they’re in the same room as you.

The pandemic and the confinement that accompanied it have made Zoom, Teams and other videoconferencing systems omnipresent. Google is working on a more advanced version than just a face on a screen. The Silicon Valley giant organized its traditional annual press conference on Tuesday May 14 to present its innovations. Ahead of the event, the Mountain View firm published a press release on its Starline project and a video to illustrate it. Two people are talking, one on what looks like a television screen, but we actually have the impression that she is there in three dimensions, without having to use a virtual reality headset. The screen generates a feeling of depth and volume, as Google explains. A result obtained thanks to cameras, sensors to capture the movement of the person, a little artificial intelligence, obviously, and a specific screen. The Californian group ensures that this way of communicating improves what we remember from the call by 30% compared to a traditional videoconference, among other things because attention to the conversation increases by 15%. In fact, technology helps with non-verbal communication since we can much better observe the gestures and expressions of our interlocutor.

Google promises an arrival on the market in 2025, without giving many more details. We don’t know anything about the price, for example. The Silicon Valley giant has partnered with HP to develop its technology and make it accessible. Does this mean that HP brand computers will be equipped? We don’t know that either. But the idea would also be to integrate the Starline project with Google Meet, Zoom and other videoconferencing applications. The project dates from 2021, it has evolved along the way. In early versions, the prototype looked like a sort of cabin that you had to enter. The equipment took up much more space, compromising its large-scale use. There, the system has become considerably lighter. It has been tested in around a hundred companies for months.

According to the Resume Builder site, in the United States, the return of employees to the office will be effective in 9 out of 10 companies by the end of the year, at least those which still have offices. Even in a company like Airbnb, which has been talked about a lot because it gave its employees the right to work from wherever they want, managers consider that a presence in the office is important, as part of training or launching of projects in particular. But it’s not a full return, five days a week, either. The hybrid mode seems to be preferred by employers and employees alike. According to the firm Morning Consult Pro in any case, for the first time since the pandemic, the share of employees who favor hybrid mode has exceeded the share of those who want to work only from home.

At the same time, a CNBC survey puts the proportion of business leaders confident in the hybrid work strategy at 80%, in part because they have observed an increase in the productivity of their employees.