Invisibility cloak 'step closer'

[Patchy]

Scientists in the US say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people invisible.

Researchers at the University of California in Berkeley have developed a material that can bend light around 3D objects making them "disappear".

The materials do not occur naturally but have been created on a nano scale, measured in billionths of a metre.

The team says the principles could one day be scaled up to make invisibility cloaks large enough to hide people.

Stealth operations

The findings, by scientists led by Xiang Zhang, were published in the journals Nature and Science.

The new system works like water flowing around a rock, the researchers said.

Because light is not absorbed or reflected by the object, a person only sees the light from behind it - rendering the object invisible.

The new material produces has "negative refractive" properties. It has a multi-layered "fishnet" structure which is transparent over a wide range of light wavelengths.

The research, funded by the US government, could one day be used in military stealth operations - with tanks made to disappear from the enemies' sight.

Source: BBC News

[Zephyr]

Shweetness.
Creating an illusion...
I want one!

[Patchy]

yep same, I'd misuse it for airsofting though :P

[Gavin]

Hmm


The cloak things sounds like from that harry potter movie :)

[Rutherford The Brave]

Hmmmm.....Need to get me one of those.

[Sage]

Don't get too excited. Like hell they'd give these things to civilians. ._.

[ShatteredWings]

Hmm


The cloak things sounds like from that harry potter movie :)
haha. true
Don't get too excited. Like hell they'd give these things to civilians. ._.
:(

don't burst the bubble

[iJack]

you could watch someone get dressed...

[Oblivion]

That would be awesome!
Your own personal invisibility cloak :)

[Camazotz]

Don't get too excited. Like hell they'd give these things to civilians. ._.

Totally agree. Besides, if you did have one, you wouldn't be able to find it!

[Maverick]

A stalker's dream come true.

[Whisper]

Western superiority WHO RAH!!

I've actually read about this a few times in popular science
cool stuff

[japanman]

0.o What if every country had this and used it on tanks then you wouldnt fight anyone becease if we are invisible and they are invisible lol that would be a wierd fight.
I want to use that material to make shoes xP "where are my feet!!" lol

[Junky]

0.o What if every country had this and used it on tanks then you wouldnt fight anyone becease if we are invisible and they are invisible lol that would be a wierd fight.l
Not really that weird you would just use heat sensors, and they probably wouldn't be put on that many tanks cause modern tanks already cost millions, can you imagine the cost after this. Not to mention what would happen if it got hit with any kind of gunfire?

[Nihilus]

wow jeez thats amazing. I would hateto think of this invention/discovery to be used in war. Biologists could use this to examine the natural world without disturbing it.....

[0=]

It actually will see civilian use, but for a different purpose. Rather than using computers to redirect optical signals this material could be used to redirect the signal from fiber optic lines, increasing the theoretical speed of the internet. A computer can operate at GHz, but a light-based system at THz.

[Underage_Thinker]

One step closer to the flux capacitor

[Techno Monster]

WOW that is amazing

By the way... how did you get 2 faces, Underage_Thinker?

[Jesse]

LOL! The bottom one is his avatar. :P

[Underage_Thinker]

Do something that you think will get you banned(post porn, flame some noobs, call an admin four lettered word, .ect), except do it on a Tuesday.

[Techno Monster]

Wow im dumb...

[Sugaree]

you could watch someone get dressed...

:eek:....:whistle:

A stalker's dream come true.

Very true Ant. This would be the perfect tool for stalkers and criminals.

[The Batman]

I think they would find away to detect it somehow.

[Sugaree]

How can that be? How can you detect something that's naked to the human eye? Well, you could make some type of security camera that could see beyond the cloak.

[george]

Simple, heat vision. :)

[The Batman]

They wouldn't make something that they couldn't even find that would be stupid. There would probably be some kind of master switch that shuts it off.

[0=]

Just use infrared cameras (if only visible light is redirected), radar (same problem as infrared), or sonar.

[Callwaiting]

You wouldn't need a master switch, youd just put it in a case or something when you're finished, or attach a post-it note to it :P .
Somebody mentioned they'd like to use it on their shoes, I was actually thinking how cool it would be if you used it on everything except shoes, so you'd have a random pair of shoes strolling down the street lol.

[Antares]

that means harry potter is real?!?

[Falk 'Ace' Flyer]

The research, funded by the US government, could one day be used in military stealth operations - with tanks made to disappear from the enemies' sight.
If only there wasn't the nifty little thing called radar. There's also thermal vision. In this day and age, there's not much this could be used for.

[0=]

Radar is electromagnetic radiation, just like visible light, so the same technology could be used for radar cloaking.

[Falk 'Ace' Flyer]

I thought of a good civilian application: car windows/windshield. Not only would the protection be better, because you could cloak the metal frame in front, cars would be cheaper to produce because they don't have to cut up the body / doors for window spaces, just paint them.

[0=]

I thought of a good civilian application: car windows/windshield. Not only would the protection be better, because you could cloak the metal frame in front, cars would be cheaper to produce because they don't have to cut up the body / doors for window spaces, just paint them.

A cloaking system would be more expensive and less reliable than a glass window system, making it entirely impractical.