The new CNN "Hologram" technology is absolutely bull****. Not only are there no projected 3D holograms, but it's being done for way more money than needed.

Right now, 35 HD cameras ring around a subject and triangulate her location, transmitting both composite HD images and angle-calculations from twenty computers crunching this data, and sending it all to cameras that compensate for this and insert the individuals into place. It's essentially high-excess composite photo-mapping. Why is it excessive?

Films have been using programmed movement paths for generations. This exact same broadcast could've been done with two perfectly synched cameras that have been around since the days of Terminator and Aliens. No computers, no billions, and no matrix-like camera setup. There's nothing high tech about what CNN is doing, they're just spending a lot of money to do it the hard way.

[From my blog]

I think it would make more sense to say "absolute bull****" instead of "absolutely".

It is just a gimmick, and it's also very misleading to call it a hologram.

Nonetheless, I chose CNN as the station to watch on election night solely because that's when they were unveiling it, so it served its real purpose. I read somewhere that they purposely degraded the image quality in order to give it a proprietary look, because running at full quality it looked (on TV) like the Obama representative really was there in the room.

It really does disgust me though, as this isn't technology that will help convey information to the viewer in larger volume or greater speed or better accuracy. In fact it did quite the opposite because the focus of the interview was clearly the technology instead of the polls.

Whatever happened to simply watching the news. I'll watch movies for special effects.

Cisco demonstrated actual 2D holographic teleconferencing a while ago.

Man even with space travel and lightsabers the SW universe had crappy holograms.

Interestingly, it was while working on the special effects for Star Wars that the technique of having computer-controlled camera motion paths was introduced.

NOW NOW CHILDREN, EAT YOUR VEGETABLES, TAKE YOUR BATH AT 5:30 AND ONLY ONE HOUR OF RADIO BEFORE IT'S OFF TO BED.