Word: cnn
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Plumber, Joe the • final CNN interview with is not enjoyed...
...television news stunts go, CNN's debut of a "hologram" reporter during its election-night coverage was one of the most talked about - and yes, bizarre - of the past year. "Hi, Wolf!" chirped beaming CNN correspondent Jessica Yellin, who was in Chicago at the victory rally for President-elect Barack Obama yet miraculously appeared on TV to be standing before anchor Wolf Blitzer in the CNN newsroom, waving - and surrounded by a fuzzy white line. In the studio, Blitzer was talking to empty space, although he could see Yellin on a nearby monitor. "We beamed you in here into...
...CNN Washington bureau chief David Bohrman admits the "hologram" didn't have a great deal of journalistic importance other than that it allowed Blitzer to talk to Yellin without the commotion and noise of the 240,000-strong crowd gathered in Grant Park in Chicago. "I'm not sure the point was terribly deep," he says. "But I do think that if you look 20 years into the future, television will do something like this routinely...
...howls of outrage from science-fiction geeks and engineering purists worldwide, CNN acknowledges that its "hologram" wasn't a hologram at all. The feat was accomplished with a 3-D green-screen digital-composite technique that's been in use for years. Some 40 high-definition cameras arranged in a circle filmed Yellin at the same time against a 360-degree green background; the images were overlaid to make Yellin appear three-dimensional, and the reporter was then digitally pasted into the frame next to Blitzer. Specialized software was used to make sure her image lined up with the movement...
...Blitzer and his virtual correspondent, most viewers probably don't care whether what they saw was a real hologram or a fake one - which means CNN probably doesn't either. Still, promises Bohrman, "when and if technology allows us to do this for real, we really will...