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A Step Towards an Invisibility Cloak
An anonymous reader alerts us to work out of Purdue University in Indiana, where researchers have produced a design for a method of cloaking objects of any shape and size at a single wavelength of visible light. The math for such an invisibility effect was worked out last year at Duke and in the UK, but the new work, to be published in Nature Photonics this month, is the first practical design. The lead researcher, Vladimir Shalaev, notes that even though the current design works only at a single wavelength, and so would not convey true invisibility, it could still be useful — against, for example, night-vision goggles or laser target designators. Shalaev calls the technical challenge of producing an all-wavelengths cloak "doable in principle."
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
I'm curious about something though...
I have absolutely no experience/knowledge of these laser targetters, but how much more expensive would it be to be able to use different wavelengths of light?
1. Try wavelength X: Oh darn, they're protecting against that with a shiny cloaking device, so...
2. Try wavelength Y: Profit!!!/explosions
The bomb or whathaveyou is searching for a very specific wavelength(X) right? But still doesn't seem like it should be impossible to program it to cycle through 2-3 wavelengths(X->Y->Z) until it finds your dot to lock onto.
Still, it's a neat toy they're working on. I wouldn't mind one once they build one that's less selective.
Sure, each article is a slightly different take, but I swear there have been at least four previous articles about some kind of invisibility device in the past year, all turning out to really be invisibility in a very restricted sense, i.e. a particular electronic device doesn't "see" the object.
Wake me up when you've got an "invisibility" device that'll let me sneak into the girls locker room without getting seen.
I remember watching Black Hawk Down, and noticing that this troop (a motley crew of special forces) had the benefit of night vision effectively throughout the movie. When watching it I thoroughly believed that this was an advantage that made them successful in surviving the event. Imagine to armies fighting with night vision while one side has their special forces being cloaked.
Under the influence of Post-Cyberpunk Gonzo Journalism
Oh noes, invisible sharks with lasers !!!
Shakespeare poems - infinite monkeys with infinite time.Computer tech support - a few trained ones working from 9 to 5.
Proof by very large bribes. QED.
Ahh yes, the Emperor's new clothing line.
One wavelength hardly invisibility makes, but as the blurb suggests, it renders the target invisible to laser designators.
Invisible to laser speed checks would have some non military applications.
Michael
There is no cryptographic solution to the problem where the intended receiver and the attacker are the same entity.
According to TFA:
So basically, this will be made out of (a form of) gold, and encircle the object to be rendered invisible?
I'm betting that, in order to work, it will need to be inscribed with the phrase: Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.
Soylent Green is peoplicious!
Except that night vision devices aren't restricted to a single wavelength. Night goggles only amplify the light in the whole spectrum. The whole thing, not a single wavelength. The output is converted to monochrome to stimulate the more sensitive rod cells. By limiting color output the pupil stays more dilated and can gather more light. Its the same thing with astronomical telescopes. You read your maps with a red light and you get eyes pieces with exit pupil matching your night time pupil diameter.
Don't worry. We have the technology to prevent such abuse. Simply place an upside down basket on a stick, and place a dollar bill under it. If a record executive or a lawyer is hidden in a corner, they won't be able to resist and the basket will fall on them.
There's nothing in this article to suggest that the student with the Indian name (Uday K. Chettiar) is not an American citizen, nor that Wenshan Cai or Alexander V. Kildishev are not American citizens, or that Vladimir Shalaev himself is not a US citizen (the fact that he was educated in Russia isn't an impediment: my grandparents were educated in England, and became citizens as adults); a cursory Google search finds nothing to suggest that they are not US citizens, either. However, I do know that Title 22 of the US code includes International Traffic in Arms Regulations (http://www.epic.org/crypto/export_controls/itar.h tml), and that universities and private companies in the US are required to stick to these regulations pretty closely, for fear of losing all federal funding: technologies that are covered under these regulations can only be worked on by US Citizens and those with "permanent resident" (green card) status. The fact that there have been a number of prosecutions of companies for technology transfers to China is proof that these regulations are taken seriously (though one does wonder about equality of enforcement with this particular administration).
So, apparently you assume that anyone without a European name is not a citizen - or, at least, anyone with an Indian name is not a citizen: you didn't question Prof. Shalaev, Mr. Cai, or Mr. Kildishev. Looking at your website (http://www.geocities.com/deskofreporter/), I see that you do raise some interesting points about Taiwan's relationship with China, but that the tone you use in doing so has an aroma of xenophobia. I'd suggest that you look into the history of great American immigrant patriots, beginning with Alexander Hamilton and continuing on through Albert Einstein (he became an American citizen in 1940 and remained one until his death).
Out of curiousity, what comment would you make about Japan or China excluding US scientists access to this research? Would you object? Because the way things are going, the US is going to be increasingly finding itself in the position of other countries having a lead in certain technological areas.
As to India not signing up to the NPT, that would carry a little more moral weight if the US wasn't ignoring the treaty itself.
And Iranian students seeking bombs, is that a particular problem at your university?
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.