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No; what's doubly stupid about this is that this is already a commercial product: Fogscreen was first shown in public in 2002, and interactivity in 2005. But plus and minus 9 or 12 years, what does it matter.

Right. Fogscreen does this commercially. With better image quality, too. "Fogscreen" really is a fog screen. Here's Fogscreen in HD video, so you can see the quality of Fogscreen, which is OK for PR but not that great. They do interactivity, too.

Water screens are available, too. Those things can be huge, hundreds of feet long if desired.

All these technologies suffer from poor resolution. It's hard to keep a layer of fog smooth and flat. Resolution gets worse further from the nozzles, too.

I think Forbes was lacking in the Technology Dept.

Lightsabers
Not possible? I think most StarWars geeks, physics buffs, and George Lucas already understood the properties of light. That's why most techie sites refer to it as an "wave arc" weapon. Meaning it's not a "laser sword" more of some kind of energy/matter stream that loops onto it self. More probable, yes? PS, with all the ILM technology, why are not the lightsaber shadows removed, hmm?Do a google search on building a lightsaber, lightsaber physics. You'll find ton's of pages.

Hyperdrives
So so SO many theories on this one. Most won't work. Some are really really probable. Yes, look at the Physics of Star Trek. Read Michio Kaku. Do your homework!

3D Spacial Holograms Not Possible?! WHAT! Like almost here! A guy has already built a floating 2D projection monitor. Read this article
IO2 Techlology
FogScreen Inc.

I saw a projection onto a sheet of FOG, they were using it as a screen you could walk through

http://www.fogscreen.com/technology.html
-snip
The basic components of the screen are a laminar, non-turbulent airflow, and a thin fog screen (or any particles) injected into and inside a laminar flow. Created this way, the fog screen is an internal part of the laminar airflow, and remains thin, crisp, and protected from turbulence.

I think this is more applicable to national security visionares.

The FogScreen (previously mentioned on /., if I recall correctly) might be an idea for large arcades or ehibitions (like anime cons)... can you imagine someone playing DDR right under the arrows, essentially replacing the ingame dancers?

This is obviously a clear winner...

Metafilter posted an article about this in August.
And since the CNN article doesn't seem to mention a link to the company: Fogscreen

Maybe it's the shiny new website but it looks like they've significantly improved the "smoothness" of the fog since I last saw the photos.

There are two distinct groups developing and commercializing similar technology.

The previously-posted story was about a walk-thru screen developed at Tampere University of Technology, Finland, demonstrated at SIGGRAPH 2003, which is being commercialized by FogScreen, Inc.

In the current story, the technology was developed at MIT, demonstrated for the media, and is being commercialized by IO2 Technology".

Both systems appear to use a particle wall or sheet, onto which video is projected. Neither is anywhere close to "holographic," so I'm afraid those late-night session "learning Vulcan" with Virtual T'Pol are still a few years off.