Invisibility- Coming to a store near you?

[Broughden]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,197026,00.html

A cloak made of those materials, with a structure designed down to the submicroscopic scale, would neither reflect light nor cast a shadow.

Instead, like a river streaming around a smooth boulder, light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation would strike the cloak and simply flow around it, continuing on as if it never bumped up against an obstacle.

That would give an onlooker the apparent ability to peer right through the cloak, with everything tucked inside concealed from view.



Editorial comment- Screw Harry Potter! I want a light saber!

[schild]

There's a video of people wearing shit like this in Japan. It's like 2 years old. It's not coming to stores any time soon.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

[Broughden]

I think I remember reading about that one before though. Wasnt the Japanese thing based on electronics and micro-cameras and processors?
Where as this new program is based on chemical properties and actually bending the light around an object rather than simply retransmiting it from one side of an object to another?

[SurfD]

Am i going to hell because the first thing i thought of was Robert Jordan and the Warder's cloaks from Wheel of Time?

[Broughden]

Am i going to hell because the first thing i thought of was Robert Jordan and the Warder's cloaks from Wheel of Time?

Yes, whenever you think of Robert Jordan it means God kills a kitten.  :-D

[Strazos]

And then kicks a puppy for good measure.

[SurfD]

There's a video of people wearing shit like this in Japan. It's like 2 years old. It's not coming to stores any time soon.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Just watched that video and something strikes me as odd.

That HAS to be faked / edited, simply due to the fact that the ball and block somehow make his head dissapear, yet show the banner behind him, without ANY way of being able to actually pick up the image THROUGH his head.

The jacket idea at least seems plausable, cause it covers the person (wraps him on both sides, allowing for proper bending of light).  The ball and block just shouldnt be able to do that.  Where / how are they supposed to occlude his head if the whole object is Infront of it?

I mean, in the case of the ball and block, how can it know to make his Head / Fingers seethrough, but only them? Why not make a see through hole through the wall behind him?

[Broughden]

Just watched that video and something strikes me as odd.

That HAS to be faked / edited, simply due to the fact that the ball and block somehow make his head dissapear, yet show the banner behind him, without ANY way of being able to actually pick up the image THROUGH his head.

The jacket idea at least seems plausable, cause it covers the person (wraps him on both sides, allowing for proper bending of light).  The ball and block just shouldnt be able to do that.  Where / how are they supposed to occlude his head if the whole object is Infront of it?

I mean, in the case of the ball and block, how can it know to make his Head / Fingers seethrough, but only them? Why not make a see through hole through the wall behind him?

From reading the original article on the technology it depends on whether the fiber optic mini-lenses are broadcasting a live signal or just being programmed to reproduce a previously recorded image.

For example with the coat the cameras on the back transmit the image to lenses on the front making the wearer's body seem invisible.
But with the ball they could be using a whole seperate camera as the image collector.

[Roac]

Although the technology is a fair bit different, you can basically think of that thing as a blue screen.  You have to be looking through a certain filter/eyepiece/window to notice the effect.  I couldn't don the suit, walk down the street, and have everyone gawk at me because they could see through me; they'd just see me in a grey jacket.

[bhodi]

OK maybe you guys don't realize this but you are talking about two very different things and getting them mixed up with each other.

The first is actually adaptive camo, a video camera records what is behind you, a picture of you, and then a projector projects that image on top of you, subtracts your picture, thus you disappear (in theory), assuming you're wearing something very static (like a grey suit). Guys in Japan made a working prototype, the drawbacks are obvious, it only works from one (very narrow) viewing angle.

The second is something new, using a specific property whereas electromagnetics take the easiest path (which is not necessarially the shortest) to bend light (take the long way) around an object. You coat an object in this stuff and the light (sort of) goes around you - on paper. Theoretically, best case scenario, it makes a blur, smudge, or shimmer effect and is probably best used on stationary objects, but has no viewing angle limitation. The system uses something called a metamaterialas the coating, which is just a term for a substance that derives it's properties from a specific structure instead of the material it's composed of. A material we don't really have yet. But it works on paper and the material is possible.

Edit: Another note on this material, the material needs to be designed to warp a specific wavelength/frequency or very small range of them, so you're (very likely) not going to get a material that can do both radar and visual light, for instance.

[Broughden]

OK maybe you guys don't realize this but you are talking about two very different things and getting them mixed up with each other.

The first is actually adaptive camo, a video camera records what is behind you, a picture of you, and then a projector projects that image on top of you, subtracts your picture, thus you disappear (in theory), assuming you're wearing something very static (like a grey suit). Guys in Japan made a working prototype, the drawbacks are obvious, it only works from one (very narrow) viewing angle.

The second is something new, using a specific property whereas electromagnetics take the easiest path (which is not necessarially the shortest) to bend light (take the long way) around an object. You coat an object in this stuff and the light (sort of) goes around you - on paper. Theoretically, best case scenario, it makes a blur, smudge, or shimmer effect and is probably best used on stationary objects, but has no viewing angle limitation. The system uses something called a metamaterialas the coating, which is just a term for a substance that derives it's properties from a specific structure instead of the material it's composed of. A material we don't really have yet. But it works on paper and the material is possible.

Edit: Another note on this material, the material needs to be designed to warp a specific wavelength/frequency or very small range of them, so you're (very likely) not going to get a material that can do both radar and visual light, for instance.

Bhodi, I actually pointed this out at the beginning of the thread. 

[Triforcer]

A little bit of me died inside by the timeI reached the 5th Harry Potter reference in that article.