Yes,
everyone wants an invisibility cloak. Yes, it's been
theorized and in development before. But now, what our friends across the pond have only imagined, scientists at an American university have actually built. A group of brainiacs at Duke University have built a device (based on the Imperial College London theory) that can deflect microwave beams so the beams flow around an object almost as if nothing was there, with not too much distortion (but only in two dimensions). In order to do this, the group built a series of concentric circles made up of "
metamaterials," or "artificial composites that can be made to interact with electromagnetic waves in ways that natural materials cannot reproduce." Don't get too excited yet, as scientists warn that this is merely a "baby step." The next step is to make the cloak work in three dimensions, and make improve the cloak's effectiveness. And even still, we're a long way off from making something completely disappear from visibility, which "would have to simultaneously interact with all of the wavelengths, or colors, that make up light." said David R. Smith, a member of the research squad. Hey Duke team, if you ever need human test subjects, we'd definitely be willing to volunteer.
[Via
The Associated Press]
posted Oct 19th 2006 7:20PM
Cloaking technology?
I'll believe it when I see it...
or... err....
a cloak would be cool but an invisible tank would be a major step
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,306678,00.html
Ladies' locker room, here I come!
"and make improve the cloak's effectiveness"
Don't you guys grammar-check your posts??
This was in Popular Science two months ago.
Like someone on Slashdot said, this is the equivelant of saying "I jumped over a box, now I just need to work on my jumping a little and I'll be able to hit the moon."
The technological jump between doing this with a microwave, and doing it with visible light is staggering. Still, this could have plenty of other applications besides Invisibility. And it's a hell of a lot cooler than that guy in Japan who used a webcam and a projector to make himself "invisible." I can't believe how long that one made the rounds.
I don't think this rises to the level of 'gadget' yet ... nice try though.
Wow, Duke is like 30 minutes away from where I live.
Same here. Not that it matters in the least.
Yeah, I read this thing earlier in the day on the wonderful MSNBC. It's awesome, this thing is going to own. I can't believe they're actually making it work. Wonderful, fantastic.
I for one welcome our invisible overlords.
email me when someone makes a cloaking device that works in four dimensions.
"Mr Scott, two to beam up, yesterday."
Just let me know when I can be the invisible man - especially that one scene, you know what I'm talking about! Yeah baby ;)
Where can I preorder my thermoptic camoflage
The principle idea behind this reminds me of Magnetic Hydro-dynamics (MHD (or how to break the silence barrier))) but instead applied to radio/electric waves instead of physical ones.
I think what Devar is trying to say is.... naked chicks are cool.
I agree that this is only the first step. Making it work with visible light will be quite a challenge. But, if you're going up against an army of robots that can only see microwaves, it might do the trick!