First look: Google’s Project Starline makes video calls feel more real

The first few seconds of my Project Starline demo were surprising. Not because my call partner seemed like they were coming out of the screen at me – 3D technology is something I have enjoyed since Movie World as a kid. No, what really caught me off guard was something I rarely do in my daily video calls: making eye contact.

Project Starline is Google’s high-fidelity 3D video chat system. It’s been kicking around in development for around five years and is already used internally at Google.

The premise is simple enough: rather than a regular flatscreen video call, you “sit across” from someone who appears in real-time 3D. No headset or glasses, no avatar. Just a screen that quite convincingly mimics depth and presence.

And it works quite well. The person coming out of the screen felt unusually present compared to regular video calls. The chat felt a bit more natural, particularly when it came to body language response and eye contact. It did feel (not quite a touch) closer to a real-world meeting than a call.

Unfortunately no video or photos were allowed. While Google did send some for use, they genuinely don't do the tech justice.

Image: Google

Designed to disappear

According to the Google Cloud team, what makes Starline interesting isn’t the 3D visual itself — it’s how quickly the technology fades into the background. 

One of the team told me the real value is that “you stop thinking about the hardware and just talk to the person”. 

Admittedly that didn’t quite match my experience. With only 15 minutes in the demo, I was very much focused on the hardware and how truly immersive it was. 

Behind the scenes, Starline uses an array of regular 2D cameras, which are stitched together with computer vision and AI to create a 3D model in real-time. That gets compressed and sent to the other person’s display, which uses light field tech to simulate depth without glasses.

There’s also a focus on audio, which the team says is key to maintaining the sense that you’re talking to a person, not a machine. The result is a system that doesn’t feel like a gimmick. It just feels normal.

And this is why I take the tech giant’s point. While I was very much blown away by the tech, even in an unreleased demo, If I were to use this on a daily basis it would become more the norm.

Project Starline says it is not trying to replace video calls

When I asked why someone wouldn’t just use Zoom, a Google representative said some meetings are fine over video but it thinks some would benefit more from a more personalised experience. Some of the examples given included interviews, manager 1:1s, or high-trust client chats.

They went on to say regular video calls lose something without the nuance of in-person interaction. Starline is meant to fill that gap.

At Google, teams already use it weekly. Salesforce has also been testing it for a couple of years. The average Starline session delivers 68% eye contact — about the same as in-person meetings. Early data is also to said to have shown that people remember more of what was said and use more non-verbal cues.

Still, we are not going to see this replace everyday calls anytime soon. For one, the specialist screen is a long way off from being appropriate for home offices. It is large, more akin to a TV than a monitor, and there is no wording on the price.

It is also limited by the fact that it is to one-to-one calls. It is not compatible with multiple people being on either side of the call.

So for now, it is firmly focused on the enterprise market, where Google says that many video calls still happen out of of WFH situations, particularly between national and international branches of organisations.

But the potential use cases can certainly be seen: financial advice, specialist healthcare and regional access to services could certainly benefit from Starline’s technology.

One example I discussed with the team was installing Starline in shared offices or clinics to connect people in regional areas to medical experts – a persistent issue in areas outside of metro centres in Australia. 

When will Google’s Project Starline be available?

Starline is still a “project” rather than a “product”. It has been in the works for years and we have no firm release date or price point.

But that is slowly changing.

Google has partnered with HP to handle hardware manufacturing and there has been talk of potentially seeing a commercial release later this year, but we’ll see. 

It has also seen a fair amount of evolution than previous versions - it is small and more polished. And the team says it’s now stable enough that even things like patterned clothing and facial hair — which used to cause glitches — are no longer an issue.

It’s not perfect. As others have pointed out, you can still occasionally see the limitations of the 3D model around edges. And as I said previously, only being compatible with one-on-one meetings is a significant limitation. 

I enjoyed the experience a great deal and can see how it is more immersive and human than a regular Google Meet or Zoom call.

But for it to truly make a strong impact we’d need to see the technology small and affordable enough to be used in home offices.

So for now Starline won’t replace regular video calls, but the argument for presence mattering is a strong one.

The author travelled to Google Cloud Next in Las Vegas as a guest of Google.

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