The CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) ran an article on their website yesterday claiming that hologram technology is still only in the initial stages, according to an expert in hologram technologies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. So, what CNN posited as brand new cutting-edge technology was something very similar to what we've already seen in movies, a combination of 360 degree cameras and green screen technology--or better known as a tomogram. The two technologies were first popularized through the major motion picture offering, The Matrix; 360 degree cameras in their "bullet-time" scenes and green screen technology in the many parts requiring the superimposition of computer graphics and actors.
So, those who claimed that the technology was "faked" were correct. Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer weren't looking at any image of will.i.am or Jessica Yellin at all. Rather they were filmed from multiple angles providing a hologram-like image. And only we, the viewer, could see them as a result of the superimposing of their images onto our TV screen feed.
Even so, to CNN's credit, the "hologram" interviews were still very cool. Hopefully those interviews can become real holograms in the near future.
CNN's Holograms Not Really Holograms via CBC
CNN Hologram Interviews With will.i.am/Jessica Yellin