5 ms·

Really cool execution. I wonder what the lag is like. I can imagine that's one thing that would break the illusion. I know with something like Zoom I've gotten

by allenu 5y ago

Really cool execution. I wonder what the lag is like. I can imagine that's one thing that would break the illusion. I know with something like Zoom I've gotten used to managing the lag over time by taking turns with the other person. However, with the "live" feel of this, there could be an uncanny valley effect if the lag is subtle, but perceptible. Another thought: this is being presented as ongoing research. I wonder what the corporate thinking is in presenting it now when it's still being tried out. Does Google want capitalize on remote meetings while it's still hot? If the pandemic wanes and we have more in-person meetings, this might not make as big a splash. I remember when I worked at Microsoft, I often noticed research announcements we'd make in public often wouldn't translate to actual product, so I got a bit jaded on any cool new thing that was announced without a product timeline.

jayd16 5y ago
Google has plenty of dark fiber. I'm sure they could get something close to land line levels of lag for an office to office connection.
skybrian 5y ago
The longer the project exists and the more people there are who get to try it, the more likely it is to leak. To speculate, here are some reasons why keeping it secret longer might be hard: - They're going to do wider testing within Google. - They're going to start bringing outside testers in to try it. - They're going to start working with manufacturers. - Some newspaper got wind of it and is about to publish a story. (I think this happened with driverless cars?) Apple is better at keeping secrets, and even they leak. Also, it's nice for the people working on it when they no longer have to keep what they do a secret. Edit: although, in this case, the timing mostly has to do with Google I/O starting today.
xnx 5y ago
It's advantageous to announce when you have a good working prototype so that when a competitor (e.g. Apple) announces something similar, the world is less impressed/amazed.
- MetalGuru 5y ago
  Advantageous even if you don't have a working prototype. See Microsoft vaporware
sneak 5y ago
Zoom lag is an issue with Zoom, not the network generally. If you actually do wired, p2p on the same side of the same continent you can get rid of most of the lag. Current lag comes from services that aren't p2p and bad networks (e.g. wifi).
- Pxtl 5y ago
  Yeah, I honestly hate how much Zoom has won because I've found it's the worst for latency. I have a mumble server running on a pi that blows the doors off Zoom for audio-quality and latency but it's unusable for casual groups because nobody wants to wear a headset and feedback destroys it.
  - sneak 5y ago
    > Yeah, I honestly hate how much Zoom has won Zoom has won in the sense that MySpace had won, or perhaps in the sense that Facebook has won. This too shall pass.
  - Trollmann 5y ago
    Mumble beats nearly all service‘s in latency and audio quality because these two things are the problems it‘s trying to solve. Did you ever play around with Teamspeak? It‘s a bit worse on the latency side but more mainstream friendly. Personally I run a mumble server as well because it solves our problems but TS may be worth looking into for you.
dbbk 5y ago
If they wanted to capitalise on remote meetings, I assume they would have shown one in the demo video. Instead they focused on family members reconnecting.
- twobitshifter 5y ago
  With the amount of data needed, one on one is probably easiest. We saw teams and zoom struggle to support more people in a call last year. It’s also nice to have them be true to size. Mini people might be somewhat uncomfortable.
ashneo76 5y ago
You gotta look at googles history: GOOG 411 was free slave labor for voice sample Captcha is free OCR training first and now road sign detection and image training AMP so that google can capture the web flow in the name of improving performance This will be data for AI models specializing in video features of humans: "AI" generated realistic human expressions which can then be used to do so many things AI gait detection aI partial face reconstruction These all already have further applications which are harmful and will lead to tie in with Google And in none of the other cases above has google published their compiled dataset. They "own that" Google is cancer

by allenu 5y ago

jayd16 5y ago

Google has plenty of dark fiber. I'm sure they could get something close to land line levels of lag for an office to office connection.

skybrian 5y ago

The longer the project exists and the more people there are who get to try it, the more likely it is to leak. To speculate, here are some reasons why keeping it secret longer might be hard: - They're going to do wider testing within Google. - They're going to start bringing outside testers in to try it. - They're going to start working with manufacturers. - Some newspaper got wind of it and is about to publish a story. (I think this happened with driverless cars?) Apple is better at keeping secrets, and even they leak. Also, it's nice for the people working on it when they no longer have to keep what they do a secret. Edit: although, in this case, the timing mostly has to do with Google I/O starting today.

xnx 5y ago

It's advantageous to announce when you have a good working prototype so that when a competitor (e.g. Apple) announces something similar, the world is less impressed/amazed.

MetalGuru 5y ago
Advantageous even if you don't have a working prototype. See Microsoft vaporware

sneak 5y ago

Zoom lag is an issue with Zoom, not the network generally. If you actually do wired, p2p on the same side of the same continent you can get rid of most of the lag. Current lag comes from services that aren't p2p and bad networks (e.g. wifi).

Pxtl 5y ago
Yeah, I honestly hate how much Zoom has won because I've found it's the worst for latency. I have a mumble server running on a pi that blows the doors off Zoom for audio-quality and latency but it's unusable for casual groups because nobody wants to wear a headset and feedback destroys it.
- sneak 5y ago
  > Yeah, I honestly hate how much Zoom has won Zoom has won in the sense that MySpace had won, or perhaps in the sense that Facebook has won. This too shall pass.
- Trollmann 5y ago
  Mumble beats nearly all service‘s in latency and audio quality because these two things are the problems it‘s trying to solve. Did you ever play around with Teamspeak? It‘s a bit worse on the latency side but more mainstream friendly. Personally I run a mumble server as well because it solves our problems but TS may be worth looking into for you.

dbbk 5y ago

If they wanted to capitalise on remote meetings, I assume they would have shown one in the demo video. Instead they focused on family members reconnecting.

twobitshifter 5y ago
With the amount of data needed, one on one is probably easiest. We saw teams and zoom struggle to support more people in a call last year. It’s also nice to have them be true to size. Mini people might be somewhat uncomfortable.

ashneo76 5y ago

You gotta look at googles history: GOOG 411 was free slave labor for voice sample Captcha is free OCR training first and now road sign detection and image training AMP so that google can capture the web flow in the name of improving performance This will be data for AI models specializing in video features of humans: "AI" generated realistic human expressions which can then be used to do so many things AI gait detection aI partial face reconstruction These all already have further applications which are harmful and will lead to tie in with Google And in none of the other cases above has google published their compiled dataset. They "own that" Google is cancer