CNN's Election Night 3-D Holograms Channel Princess Leia and Obi-Wan

By Martin Young, Asia Times. Posted November 10, 2008.

President-elect Barack Obama embraced it to winning effect, voters used and cursed it, broadcasters paraded it. Technology played a groundbreaking and arguably winning role in the US presidential election this week.

For tech bravado on the big day, CNN's hologram-like images took the prize. The news giant wowed viewers with its holographic projection technology which "beamed" reporters into the studio in true Star Wars fashion. CNN's election day started with the innovative "Magic Wall", which displayed fancy graphical representations of the results as they came in. That was a prelude to the hologram technology, seen by a record audience of 13.3 million viewers on Tuesday night.

CNN used more than 30 high-definition cameras to film reporter Jessica Yellin on location. The data were sent to the studio where

the image was reconstructed in the form of a 3D holographic projection of Yellin "beamed" into the studio to conduct interviews, apparently face-to-face with studio-based presenters Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper.

The effect was a more natural conversation flow, CNN said. The result was remarkably realistic, and it was hard to credit that reporters could not actually see each other. One projection displayed, disconceringly or deliberately similar to Princess Leia in Star Wars, a whitish-blue aura, giving the broadcast a true science fiction feeling. Another reporter appeared in a manner Star Trek's Scotty, of "beam me up" fame, would have been proud of. 

CNN worked with a California consulting company and two overseas firms to develop the technology, although CNN vice president and Washington bureau chief David Bohrman said: "It was an ornament on our tree. It certainly worked. We'll see where it ends up, if anywhere," indicating that it may not be used very often.

Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS also showed off their investments in new technology, including high definition studios, giant wall screens and all manner of fancy graphics.

Up in space, International Space Station astronauts Michael Fincke and Gregory Chamitoff took advantage of a Texan law passed 11 years ago to submit their votes from orbit 350 kilometers above Earth. The votes brought to four the number cast from outer space in NASA's 50-year history.

Earth-bound Americans frequently found their less-publicized votes more difficult to register, often facing lengthy queues and malfunctioning machines. Voting machines broke down, optical scanners jammed and touch screens proved temperamental. The DVICE website shows an interactive map detailing the voting methods in each state.

The Internet, which played a huge role during the campaign, also played its part on the big day. Thousands of people logged on to micro-blogging website Twitter to submit comments and observations, the submissions at times flowing at a speed that produced an unreadable high-speed ticker tape effect.

Video sharing website YouTube got in on the act, with clips of citizens casting their ballots on the site's "Video your Vote" section, clearly keen to share their experiences in what had been billed as one of the most historical elections in memory.

The Obama campaign helped to set out the path to victory with its video game canvassing. By voting day, YouTube users had spent 14.5 million hours watching Obama campaign videos, while in another use of the Internet, around 3.2 million people donated to the campaign via its website. At the same time, Obama's Facebook page had 2.6 million supporters and around 850,000 "friends" were recorded on the MySpace social network.

Several websites assisted voters in directing them where they could cast their vote, including whereivote.com, which supplies a database of all polling stations and plots the nearest one on a map when you enter an address. Voters could also read up on candidates, check their voter registration, and view ballot information. The Obama campaign used Google maps to assist voters in seeking local campaign resources.

Technology and the Internet have never played a greater part in electing a nations leader. If Obama can continue to embrace and encourage these methods of communication during his presidency he will continue to gain the support of followers who have put him there and harness the elusive younger generation already online and keen to participate.

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Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.

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