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> I can’t imagine anyone buying a $3000 headset for “videoconferencing” as the killer feature. Believe it. "Social presence"[0], the feeling of actually being

> I can’t imagine anyone buying a $3000 headset for “videoconferencing” as the killer feature. Believe it. "Social presence"[0], the feeling of actually being in the room with another human being, is a very real phenomenon. Its influences are things like gaze following, head movements, hand gestures-- things flatscreen video chat has not and likely will never be able to capture veridically. Its impacts are things like empathy, affinity, trust-- things you very much care about when money is at stake. To be excessively glib, social presence is why deals are still being won by the firmer handshake, not the better term sheet. Can Apple deliver this today? Who knows. No one's done it outside of a lab before. But if they can, this isn't competing with video chat-- it's competing with airplanes. And if they can, $3000 is an unbeatable price. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_presence_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_presence_theory

threeseed 4y ago
> No one's done it outside of a lab before. Depends on the person. There are many videos [1] where people report that feeling of social presence e.g. whilst working in a virtual cafe. Question now is whether Apple/Meta can bring that feeling to everyone. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAA9hBwnQKQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAA9hBwnQKQ
- Cushman 4y ago
  Indeed, and to clarify, it's not a binary feeling for anyone-- IRC is better than email, FaceTime is better than the telephone. VRChat is state of the art on prosumer hardware, but it's not competitive with the boardroom. Yet.
deanc 4y ago
Apple can’t even do realistic gesture tracking with their memojis on their highest end iOS devices. It’s appallingly bad and can pretty much only do a dozen or so expressions and with lag. I highly doubt their ability to do this in a more serious setting. There’s enough issues in video conferencing today with audio codec compression and video buffering and Bluetooth issues - I would not want to add an entirely virtual layer on top of that. “Can you hear me?” will be replaced by “are you angry?” when it mistranslates a facial expression. Miscommunication over digital medium (text) is already a huge issue.
- malshe 4y ago
  I just tried it on iPhone 14 Pro Max. There is no lag at all. Also I am not sure what exactly is appallingly bad? It's pretty good. If you are expecting Pixar quality gestures then that's on you
fnands 4y ago
Today? No. Tomorrow? Maybe. I think it will be an expensive luxury for another while, but commonplace in a decade or so.
alanwreath 4y ago
...and don't forget the benefit of having your persona represented as a Memoji -- you don't have to waste your morning prettying your self up. Hygiene, of course, keep doing that. But what if you didn't have to even concern yourself if your hair is unkempt or you're just wearing the sweatshirt you slept in. Time savings given back to people is worth something.

threeseed 4y ago

> No one's done it outside of a lab before. Depends on the person. There are many videos [1] where people report that feeling of social presence e.g. whilst working in a virtual cafe. Question now is whether Apple/Meta can bring that feeling to everyone. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAA9hBwnQKQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAA9hBwnQKQ

Cushman 4y ago
Indeed, and to clarify, it's not a binary feeling for anyone-- IRC is better than email, FaceTime is better than the telephone. VRChat is state of the art on prosumer hardware, but it's not competitive with the boardroom. Yet.

deanc 4y ago

Apple can’t even do realistic gesture tracking with their memojis on their highest end iOS devices. It’s appallingly bad and can pretty much only do a dozen or so expressions and with lag. I highly doubt their ability to do this in a more serious setting. There’s enough issues in video conferencing today with audio codec compression and video buffering and Bluetooth issues - I would not want to add an entirely virtual layer on top of that. “Can you hear me?” will be replaced by “are you angry?” when it mistranslates a facial expression. Miscommunication over digital medium (text) is already a huge issue.

malshe 4y ago
I just tried it on iPhone 14 Pro Max. There is no lag at all. Also I am not sure what exactly is appallingly bad? It's pretty good. If you are expecting Pixar quality gestures then that's on you

fnands 4y ago

Today? No. Tomorrow? Maybe. I think it will be an expensive luxury for another while, but commonplace in a decade or so.

alanwreath 4y ago

...and don't forget the benefit of having your persona represented as a Memoji -- you don't have to waste your morning prettying your self up. Hygiene, of course, keep doing that. But what if you didn't have to even concern yourself if your hair is unkempt or you're just wearing the sweatshirt you slept in. Time savings given back to people is worth something.