By KIM BELLARD

Google is getting much (deserved) publicity for its Project Starline, announced at last week’s I/O conference.  Project Starline is a new 3D video chat capability that promises to make your Zoom experience seem even more tedious.  That’s great, but I’m expecting much more from holograms – or even better technologies.  Fortunately, there are several such candidates.

For anyone who has been excited about advances in telehealth, you haven’t seen anything yet.

If you missed Google’s announcement, Project Starline was described thusly:

Imagine looking through a sort of magic window, and through that window, you see another person, life-size and in three dimensions. You can talk naturally, gesture and make eye contact.

Google says: “We believe this is where person-to-person communication technology can and should go,” because: “The effect is the feeling of a person sitting just across from you, like they are right there.” 

Sounds pretty cool.  The thing, though, is that you’re still looking at the images through a screen.  Google can call it a “magic window” if it wants, but there’s still a screen between you and what you’re seeing.