Meter

Issue date: 11/10/08 Section: Business

Media Credit: cnn.com CNN correspondent Wolf Blitzer interviews Jessica Yellin and other guests via holographic imagery.

CNN took technology to another level as the network beamed in CNN correspondent Jessica Yellin, as a holographic character.

Yellin and CNN correspondent Wolf Blitzer, managed to conduct an interview face to face, while actually being thousands of miles away from each other, with the use of holographics.

Yellin stood in front of Blitzer as a fuzzy image surrounded with a white glow, as she discussed the presidential election results.

"It was kind of weird," Brittany McLaren, a freshman biology major from Nashville. "She looked like an angel or something, because she glowed."

Yellin said she was asked to step into a booth set up in a tent at Chicago's Grant Park.

The booth was surrounded by 25 high-definition cameras in which duplicated her moving image the same way as a flight simulator would.

On-screen, however, it appeared she was standing and talking to Blitzer on CNN's New York set.

At another point during the airing of the show, singer Will.i.am was also beamed in as he discussed his take on the elections.

"I think it was quite, shall I say, interesting that they beamed Will.i.am of all people, but I got to admit, it was nice," said Maire Bushen, a senior mechanical engineering major from Miami, Fla.

While CNN flaunts its special effects from election night as a '"hologram," technically that may not be the case.

According to CNET, CNN's "hologram" seems to have been done using overlay images and a green screen to virtually put the reporter in the same studio as Blitzer.

In addition, the network claims to be "TV's first." Many companies have previously utilized holographic technology.

An Australian phone company named Telstra used a hologram earlier in the year to beam its chief technology officer from Melbourne to a business meeting approximately 460 miles away in Adelaide.

According to Cnet, "holography is a technique that allows the light scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that it appears as if the object is in the same position relative to the recording medium as it was when recorded.

The image changes as the position and orientation of the viewing system changes in exactly the same way as if the object was still present, thus making the recorded image or hologram appear three-dimensional."

That was not the case for the claimed holographic used on the network.

Many also find the holographic a bit distracting and awkward because it was introduced on election night.

"I understand why they decided to debut a hologram on election night," said Justin Bradey, a sophomore criminal justice major from Memphis. "I guess they figured since there was going to be the first black president, they had to create something memorable as well."

CNN received twice the amount of views this year than the last election in 2004.•

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