HP dropped a big one last year, saying they’d be the first to roll out some fancy hardware cooked up with Google Beam—oh, and in case you missed it, that used to be ‘Project Starline’. Anyway, they just pulled back the curtain on something called ‘Dimension’. They’re pushing it on big businesses for a jaw-dropping $25k a pop. Right, not cheap.
So, what’s this HP Dimension thing? Apparently, it’s using, get this, six cameras and some “state of the art AI” (that’s what they said). The idea? To whip up a super realistic 3D video of whoever’s using it. Like, you’re talking to a life-sized version of someone on this 65-inch screen. Wild, right? They say it’s all about getting the size, depth, color, and yeah, even that awkward eye contact down pat.
But here’s the kicker: that 25 grand doesn’t even include the Google Beam license! You gotta fork out more for that. Sneaky, huh?
Now, if you squint at the fine print, you’ll see it’s all for enterprise use. They’ll start selling it to select partners in late 2025. It pairs up with Zoom Rooms and Google Meet for those 3D chats, but it won’t leave you hanging if you’re stuck in 2D meeting land either. Think Teams, Webex—it’s got you covered, supposedly.
Helen Sheirbon, bigwig at HP, tossed out some corporate speak about how this thing’s gonna make “authentic human connections” a thing. So, the deal is, you get this virtual-meets-physical world blend. The dream is everyone feels closer even if they’re a million miles apart—or something like that.
Let’s rewind a bit. Google showed off this Beam tech back in 2021, as ‘Project Starlight’. The cool bit? It uses a special display to give a 3D depth without needing any funky headsets or glasses. Almost like having a face-to-face natter, but you know, virtually.
HP’s tests claim people picking up on 39% more non-verbal cues, 37% better at timing their chatter, and 28% boost in memory recall, all over regular video calls. Take that with a grain of salt, maybe, but it sounds impressive if it holds up.
Anyway, guess we’ll see how this plays out. Maybe it’ll revolutionize how we yabber away on Zoom. Or maybe it’s just another pricey gadget we’ll forget about in a year. Who knows.
