3 ms·

You don’t get rich feedback when communicating over a phone, email, or text chat. Then don't use those. Use immersive telepresence, instead. http://www.hp.com/

You don’t get rich feedback when communicating over a phone, email, or text chat. Then don't use those. Use immersive telepresence, instead. http://www.hp.com/halo/introducing.html http://www.hp.com/halo/introducing.html

brk 18y ago
Nice suggestion, but hardly practical.
- gravitycop 18y ago
  Will the practicality likely increase over time?
- ggruschow 18y ago
  How different is it than people just using iMacs with iChat video?
  - lliiffee 18y ago
    Much higher quality. There is something in our animal selves that demands a certain threshold of realism, which these new systems have. Technically, it's just higher resolution, faster connections, better screens, better cameras, etc., but the total effect is greater than the sum of parts, as in the system replaces plane tickets instead of phone calls. This article in the economist was good, but now behind a pay-wall: http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9687655 http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=...
  - gravitycop 18y ago
    A major factor in telepresence immersion is eye-contact. http://www.google.com/search?q=telepresence+eye+contact http://www.google.com/search?q=telepresence+eye+contact Perhaps someday a YC company will figure out how to inexpensively enable eye-contact over ordinary video chat (teleconferencing).
    - samlittlewood 18y ago
      http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/hack_lets_you_look_someone_directly.html http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/hack_lets_you_look_...
      - gravitycop 18y ago
        That's the half-silvered mirror solution (for full eye-contact teleconferencing). I was thinking of the other solution: the software-based one that corrects the images in terms of pupil-direction.
        jjs 18y ago
        That could get really creepy, really fast..
        gravitycop 18y ago
        It seems to be what HP and Cisco are using for their immersive telepresence systems. I have seen plenty of rave reviews of Halo, and never any complaints.
cschneid 18y ago
You're advocating a $100k+ teleconference room to people who work from home? The tech is awesome, and I've used HP Halo rooms, but they really aren't meant for home deployment. There's just too much physical setup needed (aligning cameras, tvs, etc) that I doubt it'll ever work for that purpose.
- gojomo 18y ago
  In a few years, $100K systems will be $1K; a few years after that, $100. And some of the people here could help make it happen. (What if digital picture frames or pocket-size projectors had auto-focus, auto-pan cameras, and however many you positioned in a single room auto-configured themselves for optimal telepresence effect? Etc.) So it's a valid suggestion from a speculative perspective, even if we know a single home worker isn't likely to buy one of these top-end systems today.

brk 18y ago

Nice suggestion, but hardly practical.

gravitycop 18y ago
Will the practicality likely increase over time?
ggruschow 18y ago
How different is it than people just using iMacs with iChat video?
- lliiffee 18y ago
  Much higher quality. There is something in our animal selves that demands a certain threshold of realism, which these new systems have. Technically, it's just higher resolution, faster connections, better screens, better cameras, etc., but the total effect is greater than the sum of parts, as in the system replaces plane tickets instead of phone calls. This article in the economist was good, but now behind a pay-wall: http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9687655 http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=...
- gravitycop 18y ago
  A major factor in telepresence immersion is eye-contact. http://www.google.com/search?q=telepresence+eye+contact http://www.google.com/search?q=telepresence+eye+contact Perhaps someday a YC company will figure out how to inexpensively enable eye-contact over ordinary video chat (teleconferencing).
  - samlittlewood 18y ago
    http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/hack_lets_you_look_someone_directly.html http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/hack_lets_you_look_...
    - gravitycop 18y ago
      That's the half-silvered mirror solution (for full eye-contact teleconferencing). I was thinking of the other solution: the software-based one that corrects the images in terms of pupil-direction.
      - jjs 18y ago
        That could get really creepy, really fast..
        gravitycop 18y ago
        It seems to be what HP and Cisco are using for their immersive telepresence systems. I have seen plenty of rave reviews of Halo, and never any complaints.

cschneid 18y ago

You're advocating a $100k+ teleconference room to people who work from home? The tech is awesome, and I've used HP Halo rooms, but they really aren't meant for home deployment. There's just too much physical setup needed (aligning cameras, tvs, etc) that I doubt it'll ever work for that purpose.

gojomo 18y ago
In a few years, $100K systems will be $1K; a few years after that, $100. And some of the people here could help make it happen. (What if digital picture frames or pocket-size projectors had auto-focus, auto-pan cameras, and however many you positioned in a single room auto-configured themselves for optimal telepresence effect? Etc.) So it's a valid suggestion from a speculative perspective, even if we know a single home worker isn't likely to buy one of these top-end systems today.