NEW YORK - CNN viewers saw double on Tuesday when the cable news giant used a hologram to 'beam up' a reporter from Chicago to New York for election analysis.
Like a character out of the science fiction movie Star Wars, veteran political anchor Wolf Blitzer used a 3D hologram system to transport correspondent Jessica Yellin into his studio.
Yellin, a little fuzzy and appearing to glow, conducted a brief discussion with Blitzer before vanishing again.
'You're a terrific hologram,' Blitzer told the image.
Yellin explained to viewers that her body was actually still in Chicago, with 35 cameras filming her inside a special tent.
'They shoot my body at different angles and I'm told that's what transmits my entire body image back to New York,' she said.
'It's like I follow the tradition of Princess Leia', she said, referring to the Star Wars heroine.
Underneath - for what CNN said was the first time in television history - the screen announced: 'Jessica Yellin via hologram from Chicago. Live.'
They chose to unveil the technology in the midst of CNN's wall-to-wall coverage of the historic US election on Tuesday pitting underdog Republican John McCain against Democrat Barack Obama, who is bidding to become the nation's first African-American president. -- AFP
