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How to make an invisibility cloak


Mac E

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Physicists have figured out the optical parameters for a magic trick they characterize as a kind of "invisibility cloak" — and unlike most magicians, they're only too willing to show you how it's done.

Invisibility cloaks have been getting a lot of press over the years. That's not only because Harry Potter put his fictional cloak to such good use, but also because researchers have been using high-tech metamaterials to create structures capable of bending light around an object to keep it hidden.

The invisibility device developed by researchers at the University of Rochester bends light as well, but not in the ways that magical cloaks or metamaterials do.

"We just figured a very simple way of doing that can just be using standard lenses, and things that we normally find in the lab," physics professor John Howell said in a

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Very cool but It won't work as a suit you can wear. Back to the drawing board!

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Cool and all, but if I saw that correctly, it needs a hole down the center where the focal point is to actually work. You should be able to do the same thing with a fiber optic cable, which might deal with the "hole in the middle" problem.

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Initially I thought it would be mirrors and lenses, like in binoculars. That they took what the lens sees, magnified it, then mirror bounced it, then lens changed it to normal scale. Which is basically what they did, minus the mirrors. The mirror system would also bypass the "hole in the middle" problem.

Edited by DieChecker
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How I hate Rikimaru!

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Can the mechanism make ITSELF invisible? Now that would be impressive.

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Can the mechanism make ITSELF invisible? Now that would be impressive.

Yes, but of course you have to be looking through the other end. (If you can find it)

Has anyone simply tried closing their eyes?

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Like mentioned in article it would make for some interesting art.Flowers standing with no vase,something suspended from ceiling from invisible wire..giving illusion of levitation.I would imagine applying it to that level will take awhile to develop yet.Eventually it will find its way into the military.The F 22 Raptor is intimidating enough let alone being invisible!..yikes,scary stuff

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once completed, i will do like Kevin Bacon did to Rhona Mitra in Hollow Man.

Just don't go crazy while doing it.
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Now if this concept could be made practical on a large scale, would a stealth bomber with this technology lose it's radar protection?

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I was thinking the same thing.The mass of the object wouldn't change,only the manipulation of light around it.It probably would make no difference but who knows

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If two people are invisible at the same time can they see each other?

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This is amazing. I want to know exactly how it works.

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new invisibility cloak? .. what happened to the old one?

It became invisible... no-one could find it. :w00t:

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This is amazing. I want to know exactly how it works.

The explanation is in either the article or the vid, I can't recall which.

But, unlike the pic, it's NOT like a multi-lens magnifying glass that you can hold in one hand and see through a wall or something,

Instead it is a multi-lens system separated from each other, and the "cloaked" object MUST be in-between one of the four lenses at a specific point(I think between the 1st and second lens...not sure) The vid shows this.

Edited by pallidin
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Now if this concept could be made practical on a large scale, would a stealth bomber with this technology lose it's radar protection?

I don't see this particular system working on a plane, because it is based on lenses that are pretty far away from each other. Basically the lenses would have to be the size of a stealth bomber and be a hundred feet above and below the bomber. And the bomber would have to have a hole in the middle for the light to go from one lens to the other. And only those looking directly at the bottom lens toward the top lens would fail to see the bomber, the other 9999 angles will see the bomber just fine.

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This device would be particularly cumbersome for large object cloaking, as all 4 lenses would have to be as large as the object desired to be cloaked.

On a smaller scale it seems to works just fine as described.

This is more like "basic science investigation" for "proof-of-concept"

It's actual utility in the real world is highly limited at this time... perhaps for magicians or such.

However, in all due regard, I fully respect both the invention itself and the progress that "basic science" makes.

It would not be the first time that "basic science" discoveries have been tweaked to advanced levels to permit other uses.

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I dont see any applications for airplanes, but for law enforcements or security? and maybe land forces like hide a missile postation or artillery or a advanced stealth position in enemy territory?

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