Years of video conferencing have taken for me many of the wonders from face-to-face conversations with people in other parts of the world. But in just a few minutes using Project Starline, Google's 3D video conferencing tool, we appreciated how the technology could break the distance between people. 

And it's a realization that may soon dawn on other potential users, as Project Starline is closer than ever to making a jump from the experimental stage and potentially becoming a real product used in conference rooms around the world. At Google I/O2024 this week, Google and HP announced that they are teaming up to turn Starline from an impressive demo that blends ai, 3D imaging and other technologies into a real product that people can buy. The goal is to prepare something by 2025.

With that time frame in mind, my first demo on Project Starline during Google I/O couldn't come at a more appropriate time. Google first announced its work with Starline in 2021, but this was the first opportunity for me to see this technology firsthand. And yes, it's a pretty impressive experience.

Thanks to the global pandemic and the lockdown of several years ago, we all need to be very familiar with the current videoconferencing experience. You beam at you on a laptop screen staring at a flat image of someone in a conference room far away or, if you're lucky, a larger monitor. Still, you need to make sure that the focus is easy to wander and that nothing is stuck in the teeth, staring at the screen, webcam, or your own miniature image.

Starline does all that away. It essentially turns that monitor into a magical window, as if the person you are meeting with is right there on the other side. There is depth not only in their faces, but also in the background behind them. It's almost to the point where you can reach out and touch them. (Although I wouldn't — I was meeting with a Google employee in my demo and I tried a virtual High Five, and it definitely killed the "you're there" illusion.

If I had experienced Starline a few years ago, there would have been more equipment in the room, but Google was able to shrink things. Now, with just 3 sets of dual cameras set up on the sides and top of the monitor, the commercialized version of Starline doesn't require a lot of equipment

You won't get the perfect image. In my conversation, I noticed a flicker around the edge of the person I was talking to, especially around my neck. It wasn't particularly distracting - in fact, it made the experience feel like those holograms you see in movies. It certainly seems to be a more natural way of communication than the 3D avatar that Apple's Vision Pro headset uses.

And making things feel natural seems like a lot of the points that project Starline. Indeed, I have noticed that I have eye contact with someone at the other end of the conversation, without my attention straying into other parts of the room. Sure, this was not an easy demo, but an hour-long meeting, so it would be interesting to see if that attention holds in a long Starline session.

Still, the Starline is impressive, even if I have only experienced it in small quantities. I liked the way the person I was conversing with seemed to jump out of the screen. When they stretched out their arms, it seemed to come right out of the frame — as if they were talking to me through a window like Google would explain. It is also very fun to experience 3D without wearing extra gear — no glasses and certainly no headset3,499 headset.

When the Google-HP partnership brings Starline-inspired hardware to market, we need to start to find the next year. Google also states that no matter what products appear, they will work with existing video conferencing services such as Google Meet and Zoom.