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."

Comments

Cloaking for fun and profit

[patio11]

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.

http://projects.star.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/projects/MEDI A/xv/oc.html

My favorite one is the breakdancing guy in the bottom video.

In theory, this post will be modded down...

[AlexanderDitto]

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.

Re:Radar?

[Amouth]

I would think a little different.. the Stealth Bomber is "Stealth" against active radar.. but can still be seen via passive radar..

abet harder to set up a passive radar system but not imposable..

when you send out the radar wave and look for what bounces back that is active.. when you have something on the other side of your target looking for that wave - that is passive.

if you setup two towers and the broadcast to each other and you fly between them they can tell even if they can see it actively... if you set up a perimeter of them say 3-4-5 or more and they all talk back and forth .. they could see the stealth bomber fly through and if your field is dense enough they would be able to track it easily

with this type of tech the item would be invisible to active and passive radar.. although I bet it would show some type of ghosting effect for areas near it via passive scan.. it would be very hard to track.

Useless for people

[GFLPraxis]

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.

Re:Useless for people

[phoenix321]

There are thousands of CCD "spy"cameras available everywhere that have an aperture of less than 3mm. Their video quality is not much worse than the regular surveillance cam, which is already enough for driving a tank. And I'm sure the military can do MUCH better than that.

An enemy near enough to see two tiny camera pinholes in front of a cloaked M1 Abrams from the future should make his peace with God immediately.

Re:Good

[RedBear]

This is good if the enemy doesn't have a Comsat or a Science Vessel.

Don't you mean a Science Wessel?

Wessel.

Well, I thought it was funny...