Invisibility cloak modified to make you see things that aren't there

The ever-evolving tale of the invisibility cloak makes us want to hang our heads in our hands sometimes, so fraught with frustrations does it seem. Well, another chapter's been added to the tome: researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology have devised a way to extend the invisibility principle, allowing an illusion to sit in place of the invisible object. So, say you wanted to use an invisibility cloak to mask the presence of your bottle of beer on the table, the new concept -- or 'shroud of lies' as we call it -- would enable you to make it appear that there was a glass of water sitting there, in place of the beer. So how does that work, exactly? Normal, every day invisibility cloaks bend light around a central cavity, whereas the team has now worked out mathematical rules for bending light in other ways, allowing a material to be designed to bend light in the exact way a spoon would, so that the light hitting the material would distort, making it look like a spoon was there. Theoretically, all of this is rather simple and quite sound, though it turns out that there are numberless mechanical obstacles standing in the way of producing such devices. The new illusion-producing device would have to be capable of working without interfering with the invisibility cloak itself (which, if you recall, also can't properly be said to exist). There's no word on when any of this will ever come to fruition of course, but we remain always hopeful.

[OneLove @ Jul 7th 2009 10:59AM]

Beer can act as an invisibility cloak. It can hide ugly.

[j_g_puff @ Jul 7th 2009 11:28AM]

Hiding beer with invisibility cloaks? That's pretty palliative. A better solution is to drink the beer and dispose of the bottle by means of window. Or wench.

[TREX6662k5 @ Jul 7th 2009 12:07PM]

You clearly saw something else when you read OneLoves comment

[lxuke @ Jul 7th 2009 11:06AM]

AMERICA, F*CK YEA!

[OneLove @ Jul 7th 2009 11:32AM]

You want to f*ck america?

[SewerShark @ Jul 7th 2009 12:51PM]

Right now? Probably North Korea.

[SimbaDogg @ Jul 7th 2009 1:35PM]

forget this invisibility altering thing...just gimme my v1.0 invisibility cloak, thats all i want.

[seanchk @ Jul 7th 2009 3:09PM]

Hong Kong FTW.

[Mike @ Jul 7th 2009 11:09AM]

There is no spoon.

[Clyde Berry @ Jul 7th 2009 12:15PM]

That's the whole point of the article.

[SpydaKat 17 @ Jul 7th 2009 12:40PM]

The cake is a lie?!

[slamEVIL @ Jul 7th 2009 2:25PM]

dammit! that's what i came to post!

[strider_mt2k @ Jul 7th 2009 11:12AM]

That's nothing.
Tech blogs post stuff like that all the time!

It's called: Vaporware! ;)

[SiXiam @ Jul 7th 2009 11:13AM]

This is a holographic projection, similar to what is used in Star Trek to make ships look like different ships or Federation spy stations look like rock faces (See Star Trek: Insurrection).

[OneLove @ Jul 7th 2009 12:52PM]

TMI :)

[Ghen @ Jul 7th 2009 1:58PM]

its not projection at all, its taking ambient light and creating a visual from that.

[MONKEY @ Jul 7th 2009 11:16AM]

How is this any different than shrooms?

[Kelth @ Jul 7th 2009 11:18AM]

We should be working to erect SEP fields not invisibility fields. After all its sooo much easier to to make it Somebody Elses Problem

^.-.~

[j_g_puff @ Jul 7th 2009 11:30AM]

You know, what you just said is *almost* identical to what you're mum is working on.

[Deny @ Jul 7th 2009 11:18AM]

PKD came up with this a while ago!

Scanner Darkly anyone?

[Captain Planet @ Jul 7th 2009 11:18AM]

Pics or it didn't happen.

[NoAndThen @ Jul 7th 2009 11:53AM]

Yeah great idea captain. I'll prove to you it happened; just let me go take a picture of a beer, and them move it and put a glass o water in it's place and take another picture. Vôila, invisibility cloak proof for the internets.

Facepalm.

[GingerFox @ Jul 7th 2009 6:07PM]

Pics of an invisible cloak, GENIUS



Sorry i know its onabout replacing objects...

[Miles @ Jul 7th 2009 11:32AM]

Does this mean I can finally be with my waifu!?

[Dayne @ Jul 7th 2009 11:34AM]

Why would you want to hide what you are? People love you and dammit you're good enough.

[username @ Jul 7th 2009 11:45AM]

you don't get out much do you?

[Dayne @ Jul 7th 2009 11:51AM]

I simply have a stable ego. Good luck on yours.

[Kali4 @ Jul 7th 2009 1:36PM]

Got Stuart Smalley all the way to Congress didn't it?

[bigpat @ Jul 7th 2009 11:50AM]

How about at least a little meat to this to this teaser story for those of us who wish to learn more? Like the names of the researchers or what department or anything... I know I can figure this out eventually, but I guess this is just a hey that sounds cool kind of thread and not meant to really inform.

[david_schurig @ Jul 7th 2009 11:57AM]

Here is the manuscript:

http://arxiv.org/pdf/0905.1484v1

It is fairly mathematical, but figure 2 shows how the scattered fields of dielectric (non-metallic) spoon are made to look like the scattered fields of a metallic coffee cup.

The idea is interesting, but the implementation is pretty unlikely.

[bones_boy @ Jul 7th 2009 11:42AM]

Wow, there are some really intelligent comments here.

Oh wait I just took the illusion-producing device off.

[jesse.greathouse @ Jul 7th 2009 11:43AM]

I want to see "A Scanner Darkly" style body suits. That would be awesome.

[Richard @ Jul 7th 2009 11:44AM]

How about they just get a working invisibility cloak out the door first before trying to mod it.

[Patrick @ Jul 7th 2009 4:54PM]

Exactly. They're just spouting ideas, like a couple of college students who just discovered patents.

[Tim Brown @ Jul 7th 2009 11:45AM]

The KIRF boys are going to love this one

[alansky @ Jul 7th 2009 11:48AM]

Is this the same "shroud of lies" the government is using every time they open their mouths?

[Brock @ Jul 7th 2009 11:49AM]

Why can I see this technology being written into season 6 of Lost? Maybe the Island was never actually there....

[jamie Miller @ Jul 7th 2009 11:53AM]

The Somebody elses problem Field.......http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somebody_Else%27s_Problem

[boatboy @ Jul 7th 2009 12:08PM]

The trick is to realize, there is no spoon.

[guaranteedautographs @ Jul 7th 2009 12:18PM]

Oh its possible.

[soop @ Jul 7th 2009 12:20PM]

The beer is a lie.

[Kali4 @ Jul 7th 2009 1:47PM]

Beer never lies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Women do.

;)

[degreethis @ Jul 8th 2009 11:51AM]

Can we stop working on invisibility cloaks. Give me shields any day!

[Cedrock @ Jul 7th 2009 1:40PM]

wake me up when they come up with a invincibility cloak..

[Kali4 @ Jul 7th 2009 1:41PM]

Yep, it's the exact same shroud that got laid on Jesus' body too.





It's a joke and God laughed with me (or at me, it's just too hard to know what a(nother) deity is thinking.)

[Kali4 @ Jul 7th 2009 1:46PM]

whoops!!!!!!!!!!!

That was supposed to be in response to alansky

[erpitt @ Jul 7th 2009 1:46PM]

wow

[Marcus @ Jul 7th 2009 1:46PM]

what movie is the screen shot from?

[Kali4 @ Jul 7th 2009 1:51PM]

I would venture to guess that it is the Invisible Man..,.

[Gabriel @ Jul 7th 2009 1:56PM]

Son of the Invisible Man (from "Amazon Women on the Moon"): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2D-T6O7myQ Fantastic. Thank you, Ed Begley Jr.