Logitech, maybe identified greatest for its private pc equipment just like the webcam I’ve used (and cherished!) for practically each workday for 3 years, is revealing an bold new prototype on Tuesday: an elaborately designed video chat sales space it calls “Undertaking Ghost” that’s designed to be a greater area to have digital conversations.

I perceive if that description may make you consider Google’s Undertaking Starline, one other conceptual video chat sales space. When Logitech first instructed me about Undertaking Ghost, that’s the place my thoughts went. And the core concept is analogous: you’ll be capable of sit in a sales space and discuss to a lifelike projection of one other one who is in one other place in a means that approximates an in-person dialog.

However not like Undertaking Starline, which depends on an elaborate array of sensors and cameras to create a hologram-like projection, Undertaking Ghost makes use of videoconferencing expertise Logitech already sells, pulls a trick like what you may know from a teleprompter to create the projection, and packs that every one right into a sales space designed by workplace furnishings maker Steelcase to create a probably extra snug expertise for conversations. 

I haven’t tried Undertaking Ghost or seen it in actual life, however primarily based on the renders, the sales space appears cozy. You’ll sit in a comfortable-looking chair with a aspect desk to put your telephone or pc. Whereas sitting within the chair, you’ll look into what’s primarily a field that homes the show, digital camera, microphone, and audio system, however the field is framed by slatted wooden that offers the entire thing a contemporary look.

The precise Logitech gear included is similar as what you’d get with its Rally system (examine this Rally Plus web page for these particulars, although Undertaking Ghost solely comes with one speaker as an alternative of two). Meaning it’s licensed for widespread videoconferencing platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Groups, and Google Meet.

To create the projection of the individual you’re speaking to, Logitech locations a particular sort of glass at an angle between an ordinary show, which, as I discussed above, is similar method you might need seen used with teleprompters. You may additionally know this system because the Pepper’s Ghost impact, which was used for issues just like the dancing ghosts in Disney’s Haunted Mansion journey and Tupac’s posthumous Coachella look.

And with Undertaking Ghost, a part of the trick is that Logitech places the digital camera instantly behind the particular piece of glass. That means, the sales space creates the phantasm of eye contact, which might go a great distance towards making chats in Undertaking Ghost really feel extra like real-life conversations. Undertaking Starline additionally created the phantasm of eye contact after I tried it in October, and it went a great distance in making the dialog not really feel just like the digital Zoom calls we’re all uninterested in at this level.

That mentioned, after I tried Undertaking Starline, I noticed that if you happen to or the individual you have been speaking to moved away from the middle of the contraption, the projection might disintegrate. I’m apprehensive that may very well be the case right here, however Logitech is assured that Undertaking Ghost has a a lot wider margin of error. “So if I’m seated barely off to the aspect, the expertise remains to be stable,” Alex Mooney, supervisor of alliances and go-to-market for Logitech, mentioned in a briefing forward of Tuesday’s announcement.

With Starline, I additionally didn’t observe any latency, however with Undertaking Ghost, that may very well be a problem. Rishi Kumar, Logitech’s director of alliances and go-to-market for its video collaboration group, says that Undertaking Ghost has zero added latency from what you expertise on a Groups, Zoom, or Meet name, however these platforms sometimes have a minimum of a touch of latency.

Once more, I haven’t tried Undertaking Ghost, so I can’t let you know how nicely it really works in actuality. However Undertaking Ghost is outwardly an actual factor, as Logitech and Steelcase might be exhibiting a reside demo as we speak on the Built-in Techniques Europe (ISE) convention this week in Barcelona, Spain. For the demo, there might be a unit on the present and a unit at Steelcase’s workplace in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and at a closed occasion, folks in Barcelona might be to have conversations with these in Grand Rapids. There may also be an open home at Steelcase’s WorkLife Middle in Barcelona on Thursday, the place folks can test it out.

The aim is to launch Undertaking Ghost inside a yr, however Logitech and Steelcase wish to use these showings to find out whether or not or not they should iterate additional on it. “The following couple of days are going to be very telling for us, as we’re capable of invite quite a lot of clients who’ve by no means seen [Project Ghost] earlier than to only sit down and expertise it for the primary time,” Mooney mentioned. “That suggestions will inform whether or not we’re prepared, by which case we wish to transfer very quick, or whether or not we have to do one other design iteration earlier than releasing.”

As for the way a lot it may cost, Logitech and Steelcase aren’t going into specifics, however they did give me a clue of the place you may begin to kind a ballpark. “We’re not seeking to simply do some loopy markup and make zillions of {dollars} off of this,” Kumar mentioned. “It’s going to be offered as a mixture of what you’d anticipate to pay for video conferencing expertise for a room, plus what you’d anticipate to pay for furnishings of this nature.” Mooney mentioned that the MSRP for the Rally system utilized in Undertaking Ghost is $2,099, so tack on furnishings costs to get an concept of the potential price. (I ponder if will probably be within the ballpark of these nice-looking telephone cubicles for workplaces; these ones from Room begin at $4,495, for instance.)

Sure, that possible means the ultimate model of Undertaking Ghost will price 1000’s of {dollars}. Nevertheless it’s possible extra to be used in an workplace than a house. Kumar even talked about the way it may very well be adopted for issues like digital care, counseling, and training.

Logitech and Google aren’t the one corporations exploring a greater means to enhance digital presence from the Zoom calls we’re all uninterested in. Meta is investing billions into VR headsets and its digital Horizon areas for work and play. And Apple’s long-rumored blended actuality headset will reportedly be capable of recreate someone’s face and physique when you’re speaking on a FaceTime name.

Whereas all of those concepts attempt to make digital communication really feel extra like actual life, all of them require costly expertise that may have larger hoops to leap by means of than simply turning on the digital camera in your laptop computer or telephone. But when Logitech’s Undertaking Ghost turns into an actual factor, maybe each from time to time, you’ll a minimum of be capable of settle into a comfortable chair in your subsequent assembly.