Slashdot Mirror
Plan For Cloaking Device Unveiled
Robotron23 writes "The BBC is reporting that a plan for a cloaking device has been unveiled. The design is pioneered by Professor Sir John Pendry's team of scientists from the US and Britain. Proof of the ability of his invention could be ready in just 18 months time using radar testing. The method revolves around certain materials making light "flow" around the given object like water."
I, for one, welcome our new invisible overlords.
http://www.chmodoplusr.com/
Granted I didn't RTFM, but proof of my ability to turn, say, a brick into 20 pounds of diamonds could also be ready within 18 months.
I can think of a lot of things the government would use this for and most of them violate the Constitution.
will be pissed. :D
I long for a month where slashdot doesn't announce a new design for a cloaking device...
Slashdot: news for Apple. Stuff that Apple.
WEAR A THICK CLOAK THAT ADMITS NO LIGHT. You will become "INVISIBLE" because according to Wiktionary, you (meaning your body proper) are no longer visible!
Honestly, where do our tax dollars go, eh? Eh? Am I right, folks?
Whether it works, or not. I'm sure these guys will make their investor's money disappear.
AP Wire (2019): In the news today, once again the military claims to have "lost" an F-22 somewhere on the grounds of Andrews Airforce Base (AFB). Said Captain J. Andrews (no relation): "I could have sworn I parked the thing right over there. Last night's storm must have blown the locator-ribbon off the nose or something."
--Udo.
This is good if the enemy doesn't have a Comsat or a Science Vessel.
I hope they don't plan to use refractive materials, they'd be much better off bending the light, you know, like when water bends around a pencil and stuff.
Autonomous Retard -- Is your camp safe? UnsafeCamp.com
"A simple model that will work for radar..."
So... they mean like the Stealth Bomber?
Ryan - http://www.thecosmotron.com/
when I don't see it, i'll believe it
I've read this story on about 4 news sites now and if I hear one more bloody site telling the public that this is 'Harry Potter' inspired I am going to have to cloak my foot up their asses. The mere thought of a scientist being inspired by Harry Potter pisses me off enough, but that they are perpetuating the idea that a childrens book written relatively recently is superceeding 150 years of SCIENCE fiction is what inspires stuff like this.
Completely off topic I know but had to get that out.. Carry on
Here; Pendry is quoted in that story's article.
There is a Japanese research group which has a cloaking system (well, technically its more of a very adaptive camoflague -- significant drawbacks, such as the requirement to have a camera focused on the object you want to cloak, make it less than useful for military applications). Its essentially useless currently, but it makes for very fun tech demos.
I A/xv/oc.html
http://projects.star.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/projects/MED
My favorite one is the breakdancing guy in the bottom video.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
Doesn't this vialate our treaty with the Klingons?
In the pr0n business
\u262D = \u5350
If you accidently bump into someone. I can imagine the scenarios in the battlefield:
Person bumps into stealthy man.
Person: What the?? What did I just bump into??
Stealth Dude: There is nothing here for you to see. Move Along.
Person: Who said that?
Stealth Dude: Ummmm... Ummm... Im a ghost.
Person: Really?
Stealth Dude runs away.
Person: Hello??? Hello??? Are you still there???
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
The maths required? Is that correct grammar in the uk?
I'd like to point out that this is brilliantly advanced... in theory. It's completely possible and will likely be buildable... in theory.
I RTFA, and frankly, it sounds like confirmation of the idea that mathamatics in general is WAY ahead of the other sciences. Things that are perfectly possible in theory are out of our grasp in the real world... right now, at least.
Even as a mathmatician, the fact that there's so much theory and so little actual DOING has me worried. There's a tiny flaw in the use of 'metamaterials' to make objects invisible... we don't HAVE metamaterials.
Though, it beats sticking my head in the sand by a long shot.
The split ends are horrible.
No, Mr. Green. Communism is just a red herring.
They claim that certain "metamolecules" have the power to make light behave like water, and flow rather than scatter. I quote:
"A little way downstream, you'd never know that you'd put a pencil in the water - it's flowing smoothly again.
"Light doesn't do that of course, it hits the pencil and scatters. So you want to put a coating around the pencil that allows light to flow around it like water, in a nice, curved way."
The truth is, water scatters when hitting something, too. It just doesn't *matter*, because all particles of water look the same to us. So, if the water particle that would have been in the middle without the disruption ends up on the far right, it doesn't matter!
However, we are very, very good at telling different pieces of light apart. At best, this will provide very good camo, where pieces of color from the environment behind you show up on you instead. At worst, the disruption from light working in unexpected ways will make this "invisibility" be a very noticeable beacon. You know how your eyes always flick to something that moves (animated ads, anyone?) This would be like that.
psh, this can easily be overcome by a Tachyon detection grid. n00bs.
Unfortuantely, curent technology requires a de-cloak before firing. However, a prototype is in the works that would allow firing while cloaked.
From TFA: These metamaterials can be designed to induce a desired change in the direction of electromagnetic waves, such as light.
Kinda like, say, glass changes the direction of light?
"In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user. You've got your own newsgroup, alt.total.loser." -Weird Al
How can we do this! This is clearly in violation of the Treaty of Algeron we signed with the Romulans.
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
I'd worry more about the Elder Gods.
I have nothing to say.
Surely, if this cloaking technology were working properly, the inventors would have cloaked themselves and the blueprints to their devious device.
At least I would have,
Dr. Evil
Here's a picture of the prototype...
One of these days I'm moving to Theory - everything works there
If I'm not mistaken, since this bends the light around the object, none of the light actually hits the object, correct?
So no invisible surveilance cameras or human beings- the light would miss the lens of the camera or the eye of the human and they'd be completely blind.
No, it violates our treaty with the romulans stupid!
After all these years, they just couldn't take it anymore. They need the predator cloaking device.
Romulans actually.
And no it doesn't, because we've got a couple of centuries until we actually sign it.
But won't this violate the Romulan treaty we are in.....
...is Thermoptic Camo, Ghost in the Shell Style :) If only it had been available back in high school...
Is that it's a fraud. There's nothing in those videos that can't be done with traditional "green screen" effects.
Here's a good idea to use as a minor plot line in a movie:
;)
So, let's imagine that an aircraft carrier uses this system and sails along cloaked, ignoring the obvious ripples in the water for a moment
Anyway, another ship comes alone, an enemy ship, which suspects that there is a cloaked vessel nearby. The communications officer on this enemy ship comes up with an utterly brilliant and unique idea, an idea never before used for some reason: "well, its gotta have a tail-pipe!" and, in no time, a torpedo is modified to find and sink the cloaked vessel.
Wait, nah, that's just really bad nevermind.
2311 to be exact :)
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
"I see your drinking 1%. Do you think you're fat?"
Autonomous Retard -- Is your camp safe? UnsafeCamp.com
... that explains why the "weight limit" alarm went off when I took the elevator...
Registered Linux user #421033
Apparently, some people have already been using this technology.
Freedom is strength, Ignorance is peace, War is slavery.
If even moderately functional, such an apparatus could also be used to defend against light weapons; e.g, orbiting laser cannon vs. cloaked nuclear weapon re-entry vehicles.
Forgive me, but I stopped reading the TFA after seeing "metamaterials".
More and more pseudoscience. Please stop it.
It is an interesting question, and I am probably not smart enough to figure this out, and probably it has more "traditional" logic/physics than I know.But...
I did RTFM and the one thing that came down to me: how will you cloak the cloaking device?
There is a drawing - the cloaking device like a cherry and the object to be cloaked like the pit of a chetty. The light travels around the pit, but what hapens to the outer device? Is it made of glass or transparent material?
If I go by what I see it is basically like a big periscope - which was discovered a couple years ago... Ohh wait - you can see the periscope...
Well, if light doesn't reflect like it should off this, um, clocked object, and instead "flows" around it...
What you will get is in fact a black blob sitting there, not an invisible object, except in the direction where all this light is "flowing." Think about it. A black object absorbs all light on the visible spectrum, reflecting none. These two behave in exactly the same way, except in one specific direction.
Light doesn't flow and liquid doesn't refract.
The possibility of making light flow around an object is as likely as making water refract as it passes through your metaprism-thing. I suppose if we can do one, then we can do the other.
Think of the possibilities of making water change direction. Oh wait, tubes are metaprism-things. Maybe the key to making light 'flow around' is really simple too, like rainbow dust or something. Yes.
Those researchers should wait for a rainy day and go retrieve some rainbow dust from the end of a rainbow.
The BBC article mentions a couple of articles in the current issue of Science. Here's the text from their research abstracts:
Controlling Electromagnetic Fields
J. B. Pendry, D. Schurig, D. R. Smith
Using the freedom of design that metamaterials provide, we show how electromagnetic fields can be redirected at will and propose a design strategy. The conserved fields--electric displacement field D, magnetic induction field B, and Poynting vector S--are all displaced in a consistent manner. A simple illustration is given of the cloaking of a proscribed volume of space to exclude completely all electromagnetic fields. Our work has relevance to exotic lens design and to the cloaking of objects from electromagnetic fields.
Optical Conformal Mapping
Ulf Leonhardt
An invisibility device should guide light around an object as if nothing were there, regardless of where the light comes from. Ideal invisibility devices are impossible due to the wave nature of light. This paper develops a general recipe for the design of media that create perfect invisibility within the accuracy of geometrical optics. The imperfections of invisibility can be made arbitrarily small to hide objects that are much larger than the wavelength. Using modern metamaterials, practical demonstrations of such devices may be possible. The method developed here can be also applied to escape detection by other electromagnetic waves or sound.
Unfortunately, I don't seem to have access to the full papers.
I can just see it... The scientists have cloaked all the investors money... I can just see it now. (well not really, because the money has disapeared.
Thats one hell of a magic trick.
I know companies that have done this same scientific project. which comes to mind... Enron... Money here now, but tomorrow its vanished.
I'm trying not to be so skeptic about this, but I just can't comprehend this at the moment. (I read the article... maybe my stupid meter is broken.)
"Don't Forget to Salt the Fries"
Just to share a bit, John Pendry is actually the guy who thought up the negative refraction idea.
But don't you remember what happened in Hollow Man?
Yeah right. I'll believe it when I don't see it.
I have one of those. Now if only I could find it ...
are tall gorgeous brunettes with blue hot pants, indestructible bracelets and the Lasso of Truth.
this device is going to create smudges and blurs everywhere. As water flows around an object it is also stired, imagine a suspension in the water as it flows, the particles in the suspension will not come back in the same order and place. I imagine the cloaked object will be the right basic color - perhaps with a bit of a shift or blend, possibly with some resemblance to what's behind it, but overall I forsee a blur. Predators cloak is excelent in comparison to this tech and you can see that bastard. I think this qualifies as mobile camoflauge. Now, perhaps with some time, development of pixelated strands in layers, and a lot more development you just may get something better than a camo/blur. This article doesn't go into enough detail on the negatives, but then again that doesn't draw readers.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
Be sure you never trample on the garden of the Invisible Pink Unicorn (blessed be her holy hooves) with your blashphemy about technological invisibility. There is only one invisible creature, and She has raptured my socks to show Her favor. In the distance, I even hear Her whinny on the wind, and you should be careful of wearing pink, as well, lest you turn invisibly pink, and terribly upset the marvelous being that is the IPU.
Although these guys are from a real place, it's still a theory paper... Wait until one comes out from engineers.
Also, according to them, it only works for single frequency, and would only work for many frequencies (say, normal light) if immersed in a medium with high index of refraction. Most materials with high index of refraction would make it invisible anyway =)
You'd have to cover every part of the spectrum that isn't absorbed by air for this to work.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
just wait until the Klingons hear of it.
The days of the digital watch are numbered.
Of what use is a cloaking technology when you have to drop shields to engage it?
it's more important to make a normal radar cloaking device. Like russian plasma shield.
I'd prefer to see the technology being used to harvest energy from sun light. Perhaps light funnels? Or?
Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose
I bought one of these as a gift for her.
And just like many nights home alone, I had a great time. Even though I couldn't see her, at least I know I wasn't imagining it!
http://projects.star.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/projects/MEDI A/xv/
Reading TFA, it strikes me as being similar to something posted on /. a month or two ago promising the same thing. TFA is light on details, but if I remember the previous article correctly and they're a similar principle (that's a lot of ifs), then this is only useful for objects about the size of the wavelength of light being used. In other words, objects smaller than 3cm for microwaves, objects about a meter for radio, and about 500 nanometers for visible. That being said, it's useless for military applications since most military vehicles are larger than 1 meter. It's also useless for people since you'd have to be about a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair in order to hide.
All they have to do is cover the planes with animated ads and most of us would never be able to see them!
My eyes instinctively ignore them these days if the browser doesn't block them to begin with.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
bull(reast is cloaked)
"Through a special application of the theory, it was thought to be possible, with specialized equipment and enough energy, to bend light around an object, rendering it essentially invisible...
I'll believe it when I see it.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
What if someone is wearing sunglasses, does it choke my cloak and make visible what i smoke?
'sig' deleted due to the stupidity of it's 'nature'
Does a chameleon completly look like it's background? No, but it is good enough for most purposes. Although it would not be a "silver bullet" of stealth, it would probably be possible to blend in with a wall, or a desert, from a distance. If you are trying to totally obliverate a poor country with minimal effort, this technology may be for you.
Imagine a plane flying over a desert/plain/feild and seeing a human size blob of black, or a human size blob of the same colour as the surroundings. Which would be easier to spot? Then again, a nice camoflauge suit would be a bit cheaper.
Of course, any cloaking device would have a hard time dealing with IR scopes, unless it managed to somehow mask all blackbody radiation, which would probably be more impossible than the supposid metamaterials. This probably dosen't matter, because such devices don't seem to be in great supply. But still, if you are worried about them coming for you, paint your bunker walls with checkerboards, and install triplasers. Or a large dog.
I have freaks! I did something right...
Romulan, Klingon, Dominion or the Federation cloak?
If it's the Federation cloak, I want nothing to do with it.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
For the ignorant among you there is a BIG (as in several orders of magnitude) difference between Radar EM waves and light. Dudes and dudettes if you going to post about a scientific article how about reading up on the science behind the article so that you can post intelligently?
ac
to see the results!
"To be is to do." --Socrates
"To do is to be." -- Aristotle
"Do-Be-Do-Be-Do..." --Sinatra
Isn't this similiar to what they tried to do with the USS Eldridge in 1943 (philadelphia experiment). By distorting light around the ship using powerful magnetic forces, they attempted to make it look like it had disappeared.
Wonder Woman has this technology since the 70's. Nothing to see here, folks!
So say we all
What's the use of being invisible when others aren't depending on their eyes? Would a blind person be aware that another person was invisible?
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
Without suggesting a bias towards any nation in the world today, developing such cloaking technology will eventually lead to considerable problems (-IMHO). Leading world power(s) will no doubt be successful in producing such a device, and in the following decades it will become available to other nations or corporations.
:-)
Their ability to control other potential seriously dangerous technologies, such as nuclear weapons, will become seriously hampered. Nations attempting to develop such technologies will be able to hide their activities much more effectively; Terrorists are already capable of escaping detention from superior sized and equipped armed forces: which will become easier with such technologies.
History also shows that nations tend to share their technology with lesser developed/equipped nations during a brief time of partnership (e.g. to repel an invading and opposite world power) - only for the partnership to become seriously sour decades later. (e.g. US and Afghanistan vs Soviet Union).
However, I strongly favour the development of new technology and believe it will lead to an improvement in life for all. I'm also an avid Star Trek fan
I just believe that we should take great care with whom we share such technology, if we ever develop it.
Various articles point out that the lensing structures bending the light have to be smaller than the light's wavelength. That means for visible light spectrum, which is around 400-700nm, your meta-material structures have to be molecular-sized. This is much smaller than what's required for radio or microwaves, which are centimeters to meters in length.
So either you'll have to nano-engineer your cloaking shell from the molecular level, or else you'd have to find a way to convert the light that strikes it into a lower frequency (higher wavelength) that you can handle more easily. If you had some super-efficient down-converter/up-converter material coating the surface of your cloak, this might then enable you to bend the light without having to go all the way down to nanometer size for your meta-material lensing structures in the cloaking material itself.
I can imagine the color green would be particularly useful to cloak against, because that would allow you to be invisible in front of vegetation/greenery.
I understand that the technology involves covering the object with life-size photos of Osama Bin Laden, upon which the object disappears and can't be traced by anyone.
The only side-effect is that audio and video recordings of the object can occasionally be heard in Al Jazeera offices.
AT&ROFLMAO
And so it will not cloak anymore!
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
Article does not say much. Which materials can bend light? water is not an electromagnetic wave. And how will make sure photons keep their original trajectories so as that the image is consistent from all angles?
But still, if you are worried about them coming for you, paint your bunker walls with checkerboards, and install triplasers. Or a large dog.
I'm currently working with the army to install a dog in a bunker. It's a real hassle.
First we tried to bolt the dog to a wall, but that was messy and after a few days the dog started to smell real bad and he came undone somehow.
Then we made a hole into the floor, put another dog in the hole and filled it with quick-dry cement. That was less messy, but again the dog started to smell after a couple days. Maybe we shouldn't have covered the dog up to the eyebrows, but I think it just didn't handle the concrete very well.
Experiments with welding have led to really unsatisfactory results. The dog started smelling bad right away.
Lately we have found something that appears to work, but we still have to find a way to keep the dog from moving while the hot glue settles. My friend Bill has suggested bolting it to the wall and then removing the bolts when the glue has cooled off - when the bolts are gone the dog will probably not start smelling due to less bolt exposure. We'll try that next. Bill is pretty smart.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
How would I see out of a cloaked device? If the light is flowing around me, then none of it would hit my retinas/ system sensors. Or am I being silly?
I'm pretty sure we made a bilateral agreement with the Romulans stipulating we wouldn't create such devices!
The name of that (inter)stellar agreement escapes me for the moment, but I'm sure some nerd here will point out the correct name and paragraph!!
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
Rather than deal with the complexities of concealing something from view, they plan on building the world's largest "Retina Slay0r" LED flashlight.
If you bend all the light around... how would you be able to see?
It's very unlikely this development will 'cloak" anything.
Small matter of "index of refraction".
You'll note the picture in the article shows light rays hitting the object "head-on". What happens to rays that hit at an angle? Even if they exit at the same angle, are they exiting along the same axis, or displaced? The article doesnt say.
Also most substances have significant reflection at each air-substance boundary-- how will this device handle that issue?
Nice try, but still quite a long way from making an object "invisible".
Remember the Japanese people did it a while back. They made that invisible cloak.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/2777111.stm
Check it.
It won't be able to compell the cloaking my tinfoil hat provides, PLUS it shields me from that mind-controlling rays the government uses to control us.
Can anybody say "Philadelphia Experiment"?!?!?!?!?
Holy crap it's the Philadelphia Experiment all over again
In any case, military applications probably wouldn't be able to keep the cloak up when a weapon was fired from within it, the energy involved being difficult to surround with a smooth, flowing light "cloak" consistently. You'd need to de-cloak to let loose a killing volley of photon torpedos, wouldn't you?
What a nuisance -- though it'd be a boon for the writers.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
I have my doubts ...
Real World: Sit inside a big cardboard box and be very quiet. Nobody can see you, ergo you're invisible
Involving light: Turn off the switch and everything in the room is invisible
In a bar: Be a nerd and women already can't see you (this uses an SEP field), particularly if you're going on and on about routers and hubs, or math
Slashdot: Post A/C and you'll be modded down so far your post will be invisible
How about artillery?
All you need is the tip of a radio antenna to receive coordinates from a satelite. That antenna could even be a dragged wire that would be flush with the ground.
The satelite itself might not be able to benefit from this technology... unless it was nuclear powered. Can't exactly hide those solar panels from light.
Slowly waving my hand - "This is not the sig you are looking for."
... and it didnt involve "metamaterials"..
it simply involved clever use of fiber optics.
who gives a crap about "metamaterials" when we have these things called fiberoptic pinhole cameras and nanotube leds.
simply weave a coat of alternating light sensors and leds together and you will have optical camo a-la ghost in the shell.
granted we still cant make them cheap today, but at least we have a shot at this possibility within the next 50-100 years.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
Even the terrorists are using an adblocker already. I haven't seen a web banner in years...
Those adds are aimed at the ignorant masses who appearantly CAN see them.
This would meen your cammo would only work against intelligent people.
There is a reason we view "Military Intelligence" as an Oxymoron!
Good idea, but not for military application!
Slowly waving my hand - "This is not the sig you are looking for."
It's been said the i have done some very inapropriate things in my lifetime , things that hinge on the outskirts morality and decency, but at least i was never afraid to say who i am!!cowards. i wonder if that is a topic in itself , racsism amongst slashdotters? technologically aware individual's with skewed perceptions of the world around them?naaaah!
Anyone who knows the name, is guilty just the same!
See, it hides my identity when I post on slashdot!
Guess it doesn't work too well then :-P
Around Philidelphia. If this hits the news, I bet that movie hits tv, soon, again.
The thing you need to understand is that mathematics isn't a science. You can create lots and lots of perfectly valid mathematical theories, prove them true, and they don't have one tiny bit of them relevent to the real physical world.
Although this seems right, mathematics plays a much larger role once you get to quantum mechanics. In this field you can no longer grasp what is going on, but you can do the math to yield the truth. For instance, Schrodinger's equation tells us the energy of a particle through an eigenvalue, which is a purely mathematical construct. The reasoning is that the particle is a wave, but what does that really mean? Not very much other than that the mathematics which tell us everything about it is the only thing we can use to understand the basics of chemistry, physics, and biology.
This is one step closer to having Dungeons and Dragons in Real Life.
I dont have time to RTFA (at work), however I have a question; what happens to light in the far infrared, or thermal vision? (i.e. light coming _from_ the object obscured).. Does this technology have an answer for this? or is this just cloaking from light/radar coming from external sources?
....move along....nothing to see here....
Cloaked from radar waves?
I do need one for my car...
So you need something that would work against stupid people... didn't they have something like that in the days of the vikings?
Unless they come up with california cert battery operated tanks, the bg's (bad guys) could just shoot at (under) all the engine smoke. Big, fat, mean diesels, IIRC.
If it were done when 'tis done, then t'were well it were done quickly... MacBeth
here is a lot better article on it. They state they can make the materials. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/06052 5193729.htm
...with the Romulans that prevents Federation use of cloaking technology?
Does it involve painting the object pink?
Standard counter battery uses the sound of the round being fired, and the radar trajectory of the round to give a fairly accurate location of the arty battery location (Basic Trig). After that it's a simple matter of deciding to launch your own arty barrage onto the probable location or not. Being invisible is useless if you make a ton of noise and launch a detectable object.
soldiers and planes smacking into stuff. I mean, light is rather essential for sight. I could be wrong about this, but I generally get around better--with less running into furniture--when light reaches my eyes.
Make love, not reality television.
I might be missing some vital piece of information, but here is my question: The cloak will bend light around the object (person, aircraft, tank, etc) so that it isn't visible. But if all the light is being bent around the cloaked object, wouldn't that mean the object can't see anything either?
--
Luck is just skill you didn't know you had.
I suspect that the delay that the light gets by having to travel a farther distance than the light around the object is so small that you wouldn't notice strange behaviors from objects passing behind the cloaked object. However I'm sure electronics would be able to detect it and thus only make this useful against the human eye and low quality cameras.
Shouldn't this article have been titled, "Plan for cloaking device uncloaked?" Am I the only one who appreciates a painful pun around here?
In Soviet Russia, us are belong to all your base.
You only need to cut your sphere into finitely many pieces. And for the record, this is only the Hausdorff Paradox. Banach-Tarski extends this idea
to solids.
The Philidelphia experiment. They Hetrodyned microwave RF to shift light, the project worked, people died. It spurred a scifi about time travel, but the fact is no one traveled in time, but people died horribly. It didn't travel in time, just cloaked that's all.
This appears to use the same principle, it takes a lot of energy to bend light. I think the stealth tecchnology is right on, reduce the signature both optical and rf, only problem you can track a stealth jet by the engine emissions. A stealth submarine you can track by looking for a trail of dead plankton.A stealth battle ship, you can't hide from the hydrophone network.
You can not cloak the exhaust emissions of a vehicle. There's an easy countermeasure for this so called cloaking device.
Sometimes I think people are so smart that they are foolish.
cp much?
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Even more important, wouldn't motion detectors still work against this?
(Note: and for those yelling about the Philadelphia Experiment, I think that's a myth. If the US really had tried it & failed (*especially* during a war), they would simply have kept trying until it provably did or did not work - no way would having a few people go insane or die have stopped research).
Most of this metamaterial stuff is based on theoretical studies based on (so-far) non-existent materials => wishful thinking. Those artificial materials produced for the microwave range are narrowband and thus useless for stealth purposes.
H.C. Andersen's emperor also got a new suit. Probably of the same fabric as these scientist weave...
:)
Listen p*ssy. I'm sure your the same homo that posted earlier about alf's boner and you just want to remain anonymous fo
For the most part the technical details are just flat out missing from this article, and I agree with other posters the water example is crap, both because the water turbulence in the example would be untenable for making things invisible in dealing with light, and because the water is flowing in just one direction. I think it's just a stupid metaphor to make press.
If there's any technical basis to this it sounds a little bit like they propose to use these "metamaterials" to hop up the wavelength of the incoming photon momentarily to something huge, so it bends itself around the object cloaked, then returns to its normal wavelength, never losing its original vector, and eliminating the problem of recalculating position.
This is different from say, wrapping an object to be cloaked in fiberoptics, which with proper channeling might carry light in and out as intended, but you lose vector temporarily and must solve position on the other side with awfully careful channeling. The surface carrying the cloaking wrap could not be allowed to bend, for example.
I guess if they ever got it to work it would be interesting to see how lossy the "metamaterials" were, as we know fiberoptics are not 100% lossless - the cloaked object might be distinguishable as a faint shadow, variably darker and lighter in areas where the lossiness peaks and valleys.
I'd be very interested to see it, but I'd also be very interested to see a teleporter. A guy making news in the BBC saying he has an idea for a teleporter doesn't help me get to work any faster. Water metaphor or no.
I'll believe it when I don't.
^_^