Company Claims Invention of Potter Style Invisibility Cloak

And if you are like me, the BS alarms should already be going off. Why? Well this Canadian company UltraStealth says that they have invented a screen or tarp or cloak if you must, that uses no camera, or power supply, but if you look at the photo, it is clearly Photoshopped which Ultra Stealth explains as not wanting to give away technical secrets. hummmm. If you read the original article, you can clearly tell that they ARE talking about the Potter cloak, here is why. They describe a scenario where a soldier could walk into a room undetected. Now if your blocking all the IR visible and UV then yes you would be undetectable. But it also shows a fantastic ignorance of simple physics and the behavior of light. Because anyone that knows about refraction and reflection knows that if this unit works as advertised they would have a MAJOR problem. The wearer is blind. Potter is fiction so she can say what she wants to about how the cloak works, but obviously has absolutely NO scientific training. And you know this is true and you can prove it to yourself if you doubt me. A mirror reflect virtually all the light energy that hits it right. But if you stand behind this mirror, you can not see anything. Now the very first objection that usually comes up is what about 2 way mirrors....really? 2way mirrors are only partially glazed. it is very easy to see through both sides, but you ALWAYS see the hidden side as a dark room. Haven't you ever seen glass at night? Makes a good mirror... That how we know that UltraStealths cloak is vapor ware....

Dvice Article Link

When Science Fiction Pushes the Boundaries of Science

By contributing writer: Beatrice Owen.

There are times when you read science fiction books or watch movies that are born out of the imagination of their creators and wonder if there could be a smidgen of reality in the fantasy world they spin. I guess sci-fi works as a genre and draws fans and fanatics alike because people are fascinated by the possibility of technology and the magic it can weave. So how great would it be if it were possible to make fact out of fiction? History has taught us that this has happened before, so there’s every reason to believe it could happen again.

Take the Harry Potter series – call it magic or science fiction, whatever the name, you must admit that JK Rowling threw a spell on the entire world with her creative thinking and innovative style of writing. Now it looks as if at least one part of the book could become reality; no, it’s not Hogwarts or even magic flying brooms, it’s Harry’s (in)famous invisibility cloak, the one that was left to him by his dad and passed on to him by Albus Dumbledore. You would think invisibility is outside the realms of modern science, no matter how advanced it is, but research at the Imperial College of London has demonstrated otherwise.

Metamaterials, whose properties vary in both time and space, are a new class of materials which can be artificially engineered to distort light and sound waves. Using the properties of light and deflecting certain parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, researchers have proved that images can be altered or made to look as if they have disappeared. While the actual mechanics of this technique is beyond the grasp of the average layperson, let’s just say that this is exactly the principle that the invisibility cloak works on – the object is there, yet it seems to have disappeared when the cloak is thrown on.

While the modern day invisibility cloak is just theoretical at this stage, there’s no telling what will happen as time passes and technology becomes more advanced, because the idea is definitely not a mirage, and it’s definitely going to be worked on until it becomes a reality. For now however, even though scientists have to first work on metamaterials before they can think of making an invisibility cloak out of one, we can rest assured that as long as science fiction is alive and kicking, it will continue to push the boundaries of science.

By-line:
contributed by Beatrice Owen. Mz Owen writes on the topic of bachelors of science . She welcomes your comments at her email id: owen1.beatrice(@)gmail(.)com.


Cloak of invisibility in Winipedia

Invisibility Cloak Undone!

This has got to be an example of technology moving so fast that it literally trips over itself. Over the past several months we have been hearing more and more about tech being studied and developed that would allow a functional "invisibility cloak". Well it seems now that such a device may never happen. Why? Well it is not because a massive hole has been found in the concept, no, it's because a group of Chinese researchers have proposed a theoretical "anti-cloak" that would partially cancel the effect of the invisibility cloak, making the invisibility cloak technology partially infective. Their "anti-cloak" would be a material with optical properties perfectly matched to those of an invisibility cloak. Before you start cashing in your invisibility cloak stock, lets look at one of the major problems of a "truly" invisible material. Something that bends light around itself doesn't absorb any and doesn't reflect any. If you put a sheet of this material over yourself you would become blind. What the Chinese researchers have done is to solve this problem. Envisioning this problem, they developed in theory a way to cancel out small sections of the "cloak" so that you could see out.

Ingenious yes, but considering that we have only been able to bend certain wavelenghts of light so far and only in a lab, making "accessories" is something way on the fringe.

<- more in Science Daily ->

Invisibility cloak possible in near future

Boy, this has been all over the place. I want to thank Karen for bringing it first to my attention and Shaun Saunders for the easiest article to understand on the subject.

As we have all been reading, there are multiple efforts under way to develop a simple way to cloak people and machinery from detection. Previous efforts have aimed at only blocking certain wavelengths from being reflected. Other methods have used complicated building methods and expensive absorbent material to soak up and scatter other wavelengths. But an effective "cloak" for visible and near infra-red have proved difficult. Up to this point most efforts have used massive computer systems and cameras to make something appear to be invisible. Now, BBC news reports that :

• Researchers at the University of California in Berkeley have developed a material that can bend light around 3D objects. The materials do not occur naturally but have been created on a nano scale. The light-bending effect relies on reversing refraction, the effect that makes a straw placed in water appear bent.

Reversing refraction has been shown to be possible with microwaves, but this is the first time that the method has been demonstrated on frequencies much closer to the visible spectrum. The effect has been described as neither absorption or refraction, but quite litteraly letting the light "flow" around the desired structure.

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Scientists getting closer to creating invisibility

From Scifi.com

Related Entries: Future Tech

Science fiction may soon see another of its concepts defect to the realm of science now that engineers at Perdue University have an invisibility device in the works. Still just a concept at this point, the plan would be to surround an object with a specially designed cone with metal needles sticking out of it. The needles would change the refractive properties of the cone in such a way that light would bend around it and make any stuff inside disappear.

One problem: the design can only bend one wavelength at a time. That's still useful, though, since it could possibly shield soldiers from night-vision goggles, which see in only one wavelength of light (infrared). It could also protect objects from "laser designators," used by soldiers to highlight targets for laser-guided weapons.