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I love the execution. The business idea? Not so much. I just don't think there's a big market for video conferencing from 6ft away. My .2: find a way to genera

I love the execution. The business idea? Not so much. I just don't think there's a big market for video conferencing from 6ft away. My .2: find a way to generalize the applications. It's common to start a business focusing on a specific niche and then expand, but I have a feeling this would work better as something that can integrate into many different other applications or workflows rather than a standalone product.

staticautomatic 5y ago
Reminds me of a UI designer I worked with once who had an idea for controlling phone audio playback with gestures while driving (with the phone in a cradle). There have to be lots of other neat applications.
- switchstance 5y ago
  BMW offers similar capabilities to aid in distraction free driving. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_mGwJh4da5w&vl=en https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_mGwJh4da5w&vl=en
  - bellyfullofbac 5y ago
    Funny how she's still staring at the central console display as she's doing the volume gestures... IMO the physical volume knob is better than this replacement, but I can see the usefulness of other gestures..
dalbasal 5y ago
>> don't think there's a big market for video conferencing from 6ft away. There's a chicken egg problem. Other than TVs, we don't really have devices that we use from 6 feet away. These ideas tend to come to fruition when either (a) you catch an egg in the act of hatching or (b) laying. The rest of the time, novel media usually lives in video games or porn. One idea might be to make this a game, or game related. Playing poker or something, even against friends on videoconference, from a few feet away could be quite nice. I'm sure there are porn ideas too.
Kiro 5y ago
I'm thinking this is for people like yoga live streamers, not regular video conferencing.
kwhitefoot 5y ago
> don't think there's a big market for video conferencing from 6ft away. Why on earth not? I've been in plenty of video conferences over the years where plenty of the participants were more than 2 m away from the camera and screen. So much so that I would say that in my experience it was the most common way to do it in the offices where I have worked. Not everyone is using their mobile phone for conferencing you know.
- theptip 5y ago
  Is this a product or a feature though? Seems very much a feature in a VC software product to me. No moat; Google/Zoom will just build this if it’s popular and then you are out of business. Unless you can somehow stay ahead of them with sophistication of the UI? I think plenty of people would like this feature, I just can’t see many people paying for it.
saimiam 5y ago
I can see a lot of Toastmasters clubs using some form of this technology.
- vqc 5y ago
  (cofounder here) We're not too familiar with toastmasters (other than hearing that it's a great way to learn public speaking). Would you find this useful in the context of in-person or remote meetings or both? And what would it be used for? Moving slides? Displaying / hiding the agenda? Sending lots of clap emojis? Thanks!
  - saimiam 5y ago
    Context of remote meetings. Public speaking in general is best done standing but due to the pandemic, most toastmasters clubs end up using zoom for virtual meetings. While many speakers do stand to deliver their speeches, it gets difficult to interact with the audience in a meaningful way when zoom is built around the expectation that people will be a foot away from computer camera. Moving slides is a big thing that people can’t do today if they are standing to give a speech. Your tech can help with Emojis and reactions. Starting and stopping the timer is another useful feature that Toastmasters will use.

staticautomatic 5y ago

Reminds me of a UI designer I worked with once who had an idea for controlling phone audio playback with gestures while driving (with the phone in a cradle). There have to be lots of other neat applications.

switchstance 5y ago
BMW offers similar capabilities to aid in distraction free driving. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_mGwJh4da5w&vl=en https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_mGwJh4da5w&vl=en
- bellyfullofbac 5y ago
  Funny how she's still staring at the central console display as she's doing the volume gestures... IMO the physical volume knob is better than this replacement, but I can see the usefulness of other gestures..

dalbasal 5y ago

>> don't think there's a big market for video conferencing from 6ft away. There's a chicken egg problem. Other than TVs, we don't really have devices that we use from 6 feet away. These ideas tend to come to fruition when either (a) you catch an egg in the act of hatching or (b) laying. The rest of the time, novel media usually lives in video games or porn. One idea might be to make this a game, or game related. Playing poker or something, even against friends on videoconference, from a few feet away could be quite nice. I'm sure there are porn ideas too.

Kiro 5y ago

I'm thinking this is for people like yoga live streamers, not regular video conferencing.

kwhitefoot 5y ago

> don't think there's a big market for video conferencing from 6ft away. Why on earth not? I've been in plenty of video conferences over the years where plenty of the participants were more than 2 m away from the camera and screen. So much so that I would say that in my experience it was the most common way to do it in the offices where I have worked. Not everyone is using their mobile phone for conferencing you know.

theptip 5y ago
Is this a product or a feature though? Seems very much a feature in a VC software product to me. No moat; Google/Zoom will just build this if it’s popular and then you are out of business. Unless you can somehow stay ahead of them with sophistication of the UI? I think plenty of people would like this feature, I just can’t see many people paying for it.

saimiam 5y ago

I can see a lot of Toastmasters clubs using some form of this technology.

vqc 5y ago
(cofounder here) We're not too familiar with toastmasters (other than hearing that it's a great way to learn public speaking). Would you find this useful in the context of in-person or remote meetings or both? And what would it be used for? Moving slides? Displaying / hiding the agenda? Sending lots of clap emojis? Thanks!
- saimiam 5y ago
  Context of remote meetings. Public speaking in general is best done standing but due to the pandemic, most toastmasters clubs end up using zoom for virtual meetings. While many speakers do stand to deliver their speeches, it gets difficult to interact with the audience in a meaningful way when zoom is built around the expectation that people will be a foot away from computer camera. Moving slides is a big thing that people can’t do today if they are standing to give a speech. Your tech can help with Emojis and reactions. Starting and stopping the timer is another useful feature that Toastmasters will use.