"Cone of Silence" Possible Say Scientists

Ponca City, We Love You writes "The 'Cone of Silence,' once a staple of 1960's television shows, is now possible say scientists at Duke University who first demonstrated a working 'cloak of invisibility' that works at microwave frequencies in 2006. Such a cloak designed for audio frequencies might hide submarines in the ocean from detection by sonar or improve the acoustics of a concert hall by effectively flattening a structural beam. Although the theory used to design such acoustic devices so far isn't as general as the one used to devise the microwave cloak, the finding nonetheless paves the way for other acoustic devices. 'We've now shown that both 2-D and 3-D acoustic cloaks theoretically do exist,' says Researcher Steven Cummer. 'It opens up the door to make the physical shape of an object different from its acoustic shape.'"

Comments

Light on details...

[ecavalli]

Sadly the article is sorta light on details.

Anyone have some insight on how exactly this sort of thing is accomplished, aside from the article's reliance on materials that seemingly don't exist yet?

A staple of 60s television shows?

[Chess_the_cat]

The only show I can think of that featured the Cone of Silence was Get Smart! What other shows featured this technology?

Motels

[Porchroof]

Every motel room should have one.