Cisco's "Hologram" better than CNN's

(This has probably already been posted but searches for Cisco Hologram came up empty.)

CNN's "Hologram" was merely a trick. Wolf Blitzer could not actually see Jessica Yellin in front of him. She was added in after effects. (Though the 360* camera shots and the ability to make multiple different cameras see her from their respective angles was fascinating.)

Gizmodo Article on CNN "Hologram"

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the images are actually "projected" onto the floor of the CNN studio so that Wolf can actually talk to the person, you know, in a face to face. So it's not quite Star Wars just yet. Only after computers merge the video feeds together do you get a coherent hologram + person scenario

CNN's "Hologram Jessica" Yellin added in after effects.



Cisco's "Hologram." Martin not added in after effects.

Another Cisco "Hologram" video


Cisco which has pioneered it's tele-presence conference technology and has made "holograms." Well you can't put your hand through them so I would not call it a true hologram. However it's closer than CNN's. The image is reflected onto a thin foil screen so you actually do see the person in front of you.

Cisco Hologram Explained By New York Times

Cisco Hologram Described concisely

How The Heck Did They Do That?

The Musion display technology is similar to the tech that telepresence provider Digital Video Enterprises uses for their seamless tele-immersion room. A sheet of Musion's patented, transparent Eye-liner foil is stretched across the stage. The ultra high-definition image of Marthin De Beer and Chuck Stucki are captured in San Jose and the images of the virtual humans are then transported over the Human Network to be displayed in Bangalore.

Actors (not seen by the audience) are reflected onstage on a nearly invisible screen, observed by Aldo Perez, right, in the play "Losing Something," at the 3LD Art & Technology Center. The Musion system takes a captured image and shines it down to a mirror on the ground with an ultra-bright projector. The image then bounces off the mirror and is displayed on the Eye-liner foil (as shown above). For more images of the process at work, check out the Times' slideshow

I have seen completely useless news pieces recently, and am shocked that something this interesting has gone unnoticed in the media. I'm commenting more on the media's stupidity than something sinister.


(Yes I put "quotes" around the word hologram in this post. It's not a real put you hand through hologram so I don't want to confuse anyone. When I mention the idea of a real hologram however, I don't put "quotes.")

(Note to mods: The two external source boxes cite different sources. I have one paragraph citation from one source and a two paragraph citation from the other.)

[edit on 16-5-2009 by Studious]

[edit on 16-5-2009 by Studious]

Forgive me if I misunderstood, but Musion does not capture a 360 degree image? It seems a bit like beaming a HD webcam stream - on very interesting foil, I'll give you that ;]
If it's stretched across the stage like a screen, I take it that it's flat image as well.

It's still more real than the CNN "hologram"..

The time will soon come that we will have hologram movies and HG TV sets.


How friggn cool is that?


Then its on to the Holodeck!

If we don't end up killing everything on the planet, the 21st century might not be that bad.

We probably already have *proper* holographic technology..i bet it like most things just costs a fortune to produce right now en mass.Much like intel already has the next 2 or three generation architectures just waiting to be built.Im not much impressed by this technology in all honesty as i think we could push the boundaries more at this time.