Chinese and Singaporean researchers create real-life 'invisibility cloak'

[cirr]

November 4, 2013

A team of Chinese and Singaporean researchers have created a real "invisibility cloak", Xinhua reported last week, and not that hocus-pocus that only lasts for 110 nanoseconds—this cloaking device has already successfully made a goldfish and a cat disappear while in motion. Science!

Xinhua on October 31 posted photos of Professor Chen Hongsheng and his research team out of Zhejiang University demonstrating what happens when a pencil is put through the apparatus, "created to achieve the perfect invisibility 'cloak'", showing the middle of the pencil "gone" while the top and bottom remain visible.

Want China Times explains the technology:

The invisibility cloak is created by thin panels of glass that make objects invisible by bending light around them. The technology is still rudimentary as it is most effective when the light comes from a single angle. The cloak can also only make objects invisible in a narrow spectrum of light, the professor said.


His team along with the Singaporean University have attempted to simplify the technology. They found human eyes are not sensitive to light's phase and minute delay, and chose to use glass to make the device because it is transparent, has a smooth surface, can be obtained easily and does not need to be processed with nanotechnology.

According to Xinhua, the researchers developed a hexagonal columnar device for the experiment, which is most effective for when light is shown in at all angles.

The researchers believe that, while there are still some technical limitations, the device has major potential to be improved upon and utilized in real life, i.e., soon we'll all be chilling in invisible robes like fucking wizards.

http://www.techinasia.com/want-to-turn-invisible-these-chinese-and-singaporean-scientists-can-help/