Invisiblity soon to be real? I can't see it!

[Azrael 5]

From this link.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/05/25/invisibility.cloak.ap/index.html


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Imagine an invisibility cloak that works just like the one Harry Potter inherited from his father.
Researchers in England and the United States think they know how to do that. They are laying out the blueprint and calling for help in developing the exotic materials needed to build a cloak

Bit late for April Fool? :D

[bob_kark]

I think your title should have included a [rimshot]. Anyway, AFAIK it is theoretically possible, but I doubt you'll be sporting one anytime soon. The precision involved in creating such a thing would be mindboggling.

[fabian_lidman]

Invisibility doesn't have to be even near perfect to be useful! I was always fascinated with camouflage clothes when i was a kid -- the idea that you can magically blend into the environment if the circumstances are right. Unfortunately, i found out that it didn't work very well. People could still spot me quite easily.
In bad lighting conditions, even a rough prototype of an invisibility cloak would be quite useful, i predict. Intelligence agents could sneak into buildings undetected. Invisible bombs could be placed in strategic places. Let's just hope that this technology never gets in the hands of the wrong people. That would be, er, very unpleasant.

[Ashles]

I think your title should have included a [rimshot]. Anyway, AFAIK it is theoretically possible
How?

I thought the closest they could theoretically come was to bend light around something - but that something had to be smaller than the light wavelength

[bob_kark]

Invisibility doesn't have to be even near perfect to be useful! I was always fascinated with camouflage clothes when i was a kid -- the idea that you can magically blend into the environment if the circumstances are right. Unfortunately, i found out that it didn't work very well. People could still spot me quite easily.
In bad lighting conditions, even a rough prototype of an invisibility cloak would be quite useful, i predict. Intelligence agents could sneak into buildings undetected. Invisible bombs could be placed in strategic places. Let's just hope that this technology never gets in the hands of the wrong people. That would be, er, very unpleasant.

You're certainly right. However, they stated:

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.

It would be highly difficult to reflect the light to the proper position on the cloak, proper angle, color etc... from multiple views. Maybe precision isn't the right word.

[Azrael 5]

What's a rimshot?

[bob_kark]

How?

I thought the closest they could theoretically come was to bend light around something - but that something had to be smaller than the light wavelength

How Stuff Works (http://science.howstuffworks.com/invisibility-cloak.htm)

[bob_kark]

What's a rimshot?

The term is erroneously used to refer to the sting played by the drummer in cabaret shows to accentuate the punchline of a joke. As a result, a particularly obvious laugh line is sometimes called a rimshot.

wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rimshot)

[Azrael 5]

The term is erroneously used to refer to the sting played by the drummer in cabaret shows to accentuate the punchline of a joke. As a result, a particularly obvious laugh line is sometimes called a rimshot.

wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rimshot)

Ah I know what you mean,didn't know its definition!! ;)

[Ashles]

How Stuff Works (http://science.howstuffworks.com/invisibility-cloak.htm)
So, not invisibility in any way then.

[fuelair]

The science for this involves essentially (a word meaning hard details are not being given out) thin,fiberoptics being woven in a pattern that moves around the body of the cloak/device so that the two end of each f/o are exactly opposite each other. The closer they are to exact, the less image distortion there is. Obviously it works much better in a permenantly placed solid item - the mor movement, the more light shift (per Predator - not the first time this has come up in SF).

[Mad Hom]

I will write the rest of this post while wearing my invisible cloak.






























Mad Hom

[valis]

What's a rimshot?

You know that's when your in bed with a girl and you......

oh rimSHOT, sorry, never mind.

[MRC_Hans]

To be totally invisible would require perfect realigning of light rays after routing them around the cloaked object. That, of course is, well, for all practical purposes, impossible, at least anytime soon. But less would suffice in many situations. To blend in with an outdoor scenario, at a distance, will only require the "reassembled" image to match the real background in texture, color and approximate light intensity. In other words, if you stand in front of some bushes, it is enough to look like a bush. You don't need to look exactly like the bush behind you.

Hans

[Luke T.]

And the first use for this new material will be in women's swimwear. THEN, military uses. This is America!

[Trantor]

I remember a metaphysical book I read many years ago that mentioned that certain gurus could actually make themselves invisible. The method is really very simple - the guru shuts down his thought patterns and brain waves; with no thoughts coming out, nobody knows you're there!

See, no need for all this high tech mumbo jumbo.:)

[Overman]

Funny,

I remembered this story from a couple of years ago and it came up first.

They alrealdy have made signifagant advances here....

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/02/07/japan.invisible.ap/

[Spektator]

Next in line: the Pentagon announces it hopes to mount soldiers on flying broomsticks by 2010.

[alfaniner]

Funny,

I remembered this story from a couple of years ago and it came up first.

They alrealdy have made signifagant advances here....

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/02/07/japan.invisible.ap/

Nope, that's just a projector, camera, and some reflective material.

[opqdan]

What about the SEP field? Doesn't that make things invisible? From what I understand, it is much more efficient than making something actually invisible. :)

[Bradk3]

What about the SEP field? Doesn't that make things invisible? From what I understand, it is much more efficient than making something actually invisible. :)

Dang! Beat me to it...

[Luke T.]

What about the SEP field? Doesn't that make things invisible? From what I understand, it is much more efficient than making something actually invisible. :)

Excellent. Another Douglas Adams fan!

[KevinM]

of course will work perfectly. No one ever notices whats some one elses problem. Another even simpler way that often works is to leave what you hide directly in front of the person your hiding it from. For some reason people never see things that are directly in front of them.

[Druid]

I was always fascinated with camouflage clothes when i was a kid.

Talking of which, I once when into a store to buy a camouflage jacket... I couldnt find them.. :(

Ok, ok, wheres the door :o