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How To Cloak Objects At a Distance

KentuckyFC writes "All invisibility cloaks to date work by hiding an object embedded inside them. Now a group of physicists have worked out how to remotely cloak objects that sit outside a cloaking material. The trick is to make the cloaking material with optical properties that are exactly complementary to the space outside them. Complementary means that the material reverses the effect the space has on a plane wave of light passing through it. To an observer this space would appear to vanish. The scientists say that to cloak an object sitting outside the cloaking material, first measure its optical properties and then embed a "complementary image" of the object within the cloak. So a plane wave is first distorted by the object but then restored to a plane by the complementary image of the object within the cloak (abstract). An observer sees nothing. This method has another benefit. Objects hidden in conventional cloaks are blinded because no light enters the cloaked region. But objects that are remotely cloaked like this should still be able to see their surroundings."

15 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Yawn by noidentity · · Score: 5, Funny

    You'll know when cloaking is really working when the monthly dupe of "cloaking, this time for real" stops showing up here.

  2. Wow smart scientists... by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Funny

    "The trick is to make the cloaking material with optical properties that are exactly complementary to the space outside them. "

    So if you are hiding a tank in the desert, paint it desert colors?

    Oh wait more complex... desert != shiny...

    use flat paint.

    got it!

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    1. Re:Wow smart scientists... by discord5 · · Score: 5, Funny

      So if you are hiding a tank in the desert, paint it desert colors?

      We've actually gone one step further. We've actually built an entire tank made out of sand. Our prototype required very little materials other than that: a bucket, a shovel and a beach.

      It's still a prototype though since it breaks easily, but it does blend in with its surroundings, and it has been proven combat worthy by having our troops stomp over sandcastles.

    2. Re:Wow smart scientists... by IchNiSan · · Score: 4, Funny

      Ok, just think of this in terms of a car ...

    3. Re:Wow smart scientists... by Cthefuture · · Score: 4, Funny

      Heh, you know to this day I'm still pissed about something that happened when I was in 2nd grade. We were doing some kind of group work thing and I got was this multiple choice question about what a telescope could be made out of. One of the possible answers was sand. I instantly came up with the design in my head. The question wasn't very specific so I wasn't sure if I would need to melt the sand to form the lenses but I knew I could use a glue/sand mixture for the body (shaped by a mold while it hardened).

      Naturally I got the answer "wrong" and nobody would listen to me. That episode basically represents how my entire life has gone when dealing with other people...

      --
      The ratio of people to cake is too big
  3. Re:Yawn by discord5 · · Score: 4, Funny

    You'll know when cloaking is really working when the monthly dupe of "cloaking, this time for real" stops showing up here.

    Because they managed to cloak the article?

  4. Firing while cloaked by vvaduva · · Score: 5, Funny

    The better question is, can they fire while cloaked? I hear the Klingons made substantial advances in that area.

  5. Not a dupe, but... by AltGrendel · · Score: 4, Funny
    ...this reminds me of that "X-Files" article from yesterday.

    "Gee, if we had enough money, we could make your troops invisible, Mr. General Sir."

    --
    The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination

    - Douglas Adams

  6. wait by jav1231 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wouldn't pr0n constitute a complimentary image? Cuz I gotta tell ya with the right pr0n nearly everything around it disappears.

  7. Jeez by Konster · · Score: 4, Funny

    Everyone knows that a tachyon sub-space burst from the main deflector dish invariates the sublimated inverse proportional fields that all cloaking devices use.

    Phase the array with multi-numinal values and any cloak in the perimeter will be dropped due to subversive nominal decay but only if you attune your tertiary sensing systems to compensate for the quadralinear flux.

    This is all so simple, and I have to wonder about the credentials of /. editors that would post such elementary issues on this website.

    I mean really, this is first trimester stuff that any recruit can do off the tops of their heads.

  8. 50% of the population does it all the time by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 5, Funny

    How hard can it be if even girls manage it?

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  9. How to not be seen at a distance, low-tech style.. by Notquitecajun · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ummm...howzabout just hiding behind a tree or ducking...

  10. Re:How to not be seen at a distance, low-tech styl by dkleinsc · · Score: 4, Funny

    Notquitecajun, will you stand up please. (gunshot)

    This demonstrates the value of not being seen.

    --
    I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
  11. Re:Big-ass photo... by Comboman · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wile E. Coyote claims prior art.

    --
    Support Right To Repair Legislation.
  12. Re:Yawn by noidentity · · Score: 4, Funny

    And here I always thought that explaining a joke was sure to ruin it.