No Bias, No Bull, No Hologram

For TV News shows, the presidential election isn’t a mere opportunity to report about the politics of the day. With the many millions of people who watch, it’s also an opportunity to show off some new technological toys. On election night CNN unveiled the new semi-holographic imaging technique similar to what is seen in the “star Wars” movies. The news show had “beamed” the 3-D image of 1 correspondent and the singer Will.i.am from Chicago to the television studio in New York.

Technically, this isn’t considered a true holographic image, since the image didn’t really materialize in the studio, although to TV viewers it appeared as if did.

The technology involved a green-walled room with 44 motion capture cameras arranged in a 360-degree circle and 20 computers. The computers processed the data utilizing a graphics software similar to the one used by Hollywood special effects artists.

The 2 images contained a blue aura around them, which was added for show, not as a necessity of the technology.

For the technology to work it required tracking the cameras motion in the CNN studio and coordinate them to the cameras in Chicago, to receive a unified real-time image.

Currently, there is technology being developed where true holographs would be visible. The technology would use a spinning display surface that projects images at 5000 frames per second.