Java "?" Operator for checking null - What is it? (Not Ternary!)

I was reading an article linked from a slashdot story, and came across this little tidbit:

Take the latest version of Java, which tries to make null-pointer checking easier by offering shorthand syntax for the endless pointer testing. Just adding a question mark to each method invocation automatically includes a test for null pointers, replacing a rat's nest of if-then statements, such as:
    public String getPostcode(Person person) {
      String ans= null;
      if (person != null) {
        Name nm= person.getName();
        if (nm!= null) {
          ans= nm.getPostcode();
        }
      }
      return ans
    } 
With this:
public String getFirstName(Person person) {
      return person?.getName()?.getGivenName();
    } 

I've scoured the internet (okay, I spent at least 15 minutes googling variations on "java question mark") and got nothing. So, my question: is there any official documentation on this? I found that C# has a similar operator (the "??" operator), but I'd like to get the documentation for the language I'm working in. Or, is this just a use of the ternary operator that I've never seen before.

Thanks!

EDIT: Link to the article: http://infoworld.com/d/developer-world/12-programming-mistakes-avoid-292

The original idea comes from groovy. It was proposed for Java 7 as part of Project Coin: https://wiki.openjdk.java.net/display/Coin/2009+Proposals+TOC (Elvis and Other Null-Safe Operators), but hasn't been accepted yet.

The related Elvis operator ?: was proposed to make x ?: y shorthand for x != null ? x : y, especially useful when x is a complex expression.

This syntax does not exist in Java, nor is it slated to be included in any of the upcoming versions that I know of.

One way to workaround the lack of "?" operator using Java 8 without the overhead of try-catch (which could also hide a NullPointerException originated elsewhere, as mentioned) is to create a class to "pipe" methods in a Java-8-Stream style.

public class Pipe<T> {
    private T object;

    private Pipe(T t) {
        object = t;
    }

    public static<T> Pipe<T> of(T t) {
        return new Pipe<>(t);
    }

    public <S> Pipe<S> after(Function<? super T, ? extends S> plumber) {
        return new Pipe<>(object == null ? null : plumber.apply(object));
    }

    public T get() {
        return object;
    }

    public T orElse(T other) {
        return object == null ? other : object;
    }
}

Then, the given example would become:

public String getFirstName(Person person) {
    return Pipe.of(person).after(Person::getName).after(Name::getGivenName).get();
}

[EDIT]

Upon further thought, I figured out that it is actually possible to achieve the same only using standard Java 8 classes:

public String getFirstName(Person person) {
    return Optional.ofNullable(person).map(Person::getName).map(Name::getGivenName).orElse(null);
}

In this case, it is even possible to choose a default value (like "<no first name>") instead of null by passing it as parameter of orElse.

Java "?" Operator for checking null - What is it? (Not Ternary!)

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