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It uses real time face recognition to give a very accurate presence indicator, so you never risk calling people when they’re not actually in front of the camer

It uses real time face recognition to give a very accurate presence indicator, so you never risk calling people when they’re not actually in front of the camera, it crops your face tightly with AI so you don’t have worry about what you are wearing or your surroundings before accepting or making a call, and it uses an AI video codec that boost eye contact and facial expressions even over low bandwidth and long haul connections. When the call is over it creates a transcript that is easy to share with others, and that others can use as a base for follow up calls or discussions, thus reducing the need for everybody to be in every call to stay on the same page.

shortrounddev2 2y ago
So my camera always has to be on?
- jacobgorm 2y ago
  It is optional and not on by default. If not it falls back to mouse and keyboard activity tracking. The advantage of using the camera is that it works even if you are not touching the computer, like when reading or watching YouTube, using another device, etc.
  - shortrounddev2 2y ago
    I'm not sure if you know this but if this is marketed at businesses, the employees are gonna hate it
    - jacobgorm 2y ago
      That is actually not the feedback we are getting. And as I said the way it is configured by default does not divulge and more information than e.g. the green dot in Slack or Teams, the rest is up to you.
      - ibejoeb 2y ago
        What feedback are you getting? The implication is that you have users that are constantly surveilled by video and input device monitoring, and that they are telling you they are enthused.
        jacobgorm 2y ago
        The users we talk with are tired of meeting overload and some also feel lonely working remotely. They appreciate that we are trying to cut down the time they have to spend in meetings, and that a Virtual HQ tool like Jamscape make them feel more like a part of a team, as in the good old days where everyone were in the office together. Some dislike having the camera on all the time, both because of privacy concerns and for practical reasons such as this conflicting with other apps (this is only a problem on Windows, macOS allows the camera to be shared by multiple applications), but after we added the option of using keyboard/mouse event monitoring* instead nobody has complained about feeling surveilled. We are developers building a tool that addressed the problems with remote working we have experienced ourselves (I have personally worked remotely since 2011), and we are not trying to build a surveillance tool, as none of us like to feel surveilled. We have tried to make everything tit-for-tat, so that you only get out as much information as you yourself is willing to give. For instance, you can show live video of your face, and if you do that will be able to see live video of others, but if you turn off your own video you also lose the ability to see others. *) this monitoring, as provided by the underlying OS, does not let us see individual keyboard events, only a monotonically increasing events counter, so there are hardly any privacy implications.
JohnFen 2y ago
I, personally, would very much resent and hate a system like that. It would encourage people to interrupt me randomly even more than they already do.
- jacobgorm 2y ago
  It has a do not disturb mode and an async “ping” mechanism that protects your focus time while still allowing others to indicate that they would to talk when ever it is convenient.
  - JohnFen 2y ago
    I actually assumed it would have a DND mode, as that's a standard part of other software in this genre. However, at least in my experience, do not disturb modes don't really resolve the issue unless it's acceptable to just keep it in that mode all the time. I don't know in advance when I will be in a state where disruptions will be problematic, so I can't plan ahead. And when in a flow state, I certainly don't have the level of external awareness required to know that I should enable DND. This sort of thing is still an issue in-person, of course, but in-person has the advantage that when you're in person, you can tell at a glance if someone shouldn't be disturbed. That mitigates the issue a little bit. It is a tough problem, really, and I doubt there's a technological solution to it. And that's not even getting into the issue that such a system means you can't ignore the fact that you're constantly under surveillance. If I can't ignore that, then being under constant surveillance has really terrible effects on my mood and ability to concentrate.
    - jacobgorm 2y ago
      Nothing prevents you from having the DND setting on all the time.
      - zamadatix 2y ago
        There may be no technical limitation to not setting dnd all the time but it effectively means you either have this app for some reason other than the main pitch or you're forced under this apps surveillance/interruption mode by the org. In either case the thing solved in this scenario is not reducing meeting interruptions for the user. I think I lean with the others that the problem this app aims to solve is not really a technical problem. That said it doesn't mean there won't be lots of businesses interested in the app.

shortrounddev2 2y ago

So my camera always has to be on?

jacobgorm 2y ago
It is optional and not on by default. If not it falls back to mouse and keyboard activity tracking. The advantage of using the camera is that it works even if you are not touching the computer, like when reading or watching YouTube, using another device, etc.
- shortrounddev2 2y ago
  I'm not sure if you know this but if this is marketed at businesses, the employees are gonna hate it
  - jacobgorm 2y ago
    That is actually not the feedback we are getting. And as I said the way it is configured by default does not divulge and more information than e.g. the green dot in Slack or Teams, the rest is up to you.
    - ibejoeb 2y ago
      What feedback are you getting? The implication is that you have users that are constantly surveilled by video and input device monitoring, and that they are telling you they are enthused.
      - jacobgorm 2y ago
        The users we talk with are tired of meeting overload and some also feel lonely working remotely. They appreciate that we are trying to cut down the time they have to spend in meetings, and that a Virtual HQ tool like Jamscape make them feel more like a part of a team, as in the good old days where everyone were in the office together. Some dislike having the camera on all the time, both because of privacy concerns and for practical reasons such as this conflicting with other apps (this is only a problem on Windows, macOS allows the camera to be shared by multiple applications), but after we added the option of using keyboard/mouse event monitoring* instead nobody has complained about feeling surveilled. We are developers building a tool that addressed the problems with remote working we have experienced ourselves (I have personally worked remotely since 2011), and we are not trying to build a surveillance tool, as none of us like to feel surveilled. We have tried to make everything tit-for-tat, so that you only get out as much information as you yourself is willing to give. For instance, you can show live video of your face, and if you do that will be able to see live video of others, but if you turn off your own video you also lose the ability to see others. *) this monitoring, as provided by the underlying OS, does not let us see individual keyboard events, only a monotonically increasing events counter, so there are hardly any privacy implications.

JohnFen 2y ago

I, personally, would very much resent and hate a system like that. It would encourage people to interrupt me randomly even more than they already do.

jacobgorm 2y ago
It has a do not disturb mode and an async “ping” mechanism that protects your focus time while still allowing others to indicate that they would to talk when ever it is convenient.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  I actually assumed it would have a DND mode, as that's a standard part of other software in this genre. However, at least in my experience, do not disturb modes don't really resolve the issue unless it's acceptable to just keep it in that mode all the time. I don't know in advance when I will be in a state where disruptions will be problematic, so I can't plan ahead. And when in a flow state, I certainly don't have the level of external awareness required to know that I should enable DND. This sort of thing is still an issue in-person, of course, but in-person has the advantage that when you're in person, you can tell at a glance if someone shouldn't be disturbed. That mitigates the issue a little bit. It is a tough problem, really, and I doubt there's a technological solution to it. And that's not even getting into the issue that such a system means you can't ignore the fact that you're constantly under surveillance. If I can't ignore that, then being under constant surveillance has really terrible effects on my mood and ability to concentrate.
  - jacobgorm 2y ago
    Nothing prevents you from having the DND setting on all the time.
    - zamadatix 2y ago
      There may be no technical limitation to not setting dnd all the time but it effectively means you either have this app for some reason other than the main pitch or you're forced under this apps surveillance/interruption mode by the org. In either case the thing solved in this scenario is not reducing meeting interruptions for the user. I think I lean with the others that the problem this app aims to solve is not really a technical problem. That said it doesn't mean there won't be lots of businesses interested in the app.