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Illusion Cloak Makes One Object Look Like Another

Posted by samzenpus on from the cloak-of-the-beholder dept.

KentuckyFC writes "Metamaterials are synthetic substances that can steer light in any way imaginable. Their most famous incarnation is in invisibility cloaks which work by steering light around a region of space making any object inside that region invisible. But invisibility is just the start. A team of physicists in Hong Kong (the same guys who recently worked out how to cloak objects at a distance) have worked out how to create a cloak that makes one object look like another. Instead of steering light to make a region of space look empty, the illusion cloak manipulates light in a way that makes a region of space look as if it contains a specific object. So any object within that region of space, a mouse say, takes on the appearance of an elephant."

59 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. That's some sweet stuff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Soon people all over can put one on their wives to have them look like supermodels... Yay!

    1. Re:That's some sweet stuff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Or put one on my... you know...like they made the mouse look like an elephant?

    2. Re:That's some sweet stuff by maharb · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Still won't change the pleasure your new elephant can give.

    3. Re:That's some sweet stuff by Locke2005 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Still won't change the pleasure your new elephant can give. What's the matter, sheep aren't good enough for you?

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    4. Re:That's some sweet stuff by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Anybody who's ever gone to a drag bar knows this is not new.

      When I moved to a new apartment in Chicago's New Town in my early twenties, my roommate (native of Kansas) and I walked around the corner to get a beer after a long day of hauling furniture. The first thing we noticed was the place was full of incredibly hot girls.

      Or so we thought...

      Fortunately, a bartender took pity on us two naifs and clued us in before we did anything irredeemable. My buddy, who was a few beers ahead of me, took some convincing, let me tell you.

      Cognitive dissonance, when it involves the little head, is tough to deal with sometimes.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re:That's some sweet stuff by unlametheweak · · Score: 4, Funny

      Instead of steering light to make a region of space look empty, the illusion cloak manipulates light in a way that makes a region of space look as if it contains a specific object, such as an elephant. So any object within that region of space, a mouse say, takes on the appearance of an elephant."

      This is just going to piss off astronomers and give more credence to the UFO and ET enthusiasts when miscreants start projecting images of elephants floating around in the night sky.

    6. Re:That's some sweet stuff by mqduck · · Score: 5, Funny

      If they're hot and never take their pants off, what's the problem?

      --
      Property is theft.
    7. Re:That's some sweet stuff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      We already have that. It's called "beer".

    8. Re:That's some sweet stuff by binarylarry · · Score: 4, Funny

      My wife is a supermodel, you insensitive clod!

      --
      Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
    9. Re:That's some sweet stuff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Then you can use it on yourself :).

    10. Re:That's some sweet stuff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If they are hot just fuck them in the ass. What's the big problem. Ass is ass if they are hot. Just stick your cock in their nice plump rear and call it a night. Fucking prude.

      - Wolf Bearclaw

    11. Re:That's some sweet stuff by rdnetto · · Score: 3, Informative

      I don't have a wife, you insensitive clod!

      --
      Most human behaviour can be explained in terms of identity.
  2. Invisibility cloak?!? by Locke2005 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Invisibility cloak?!? Ha! I'll believe it when I see it!

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  3. It's Called . . . by elcorvax · · Score: 5, Funny

    Make up !

  4. Doesnt sound like much? by voss · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Imagine the ability to make a tank look like a heavy truck at a distance(say to a drone), or a rocket launcher to look like a stack of pipes on satellite photos.

    1. Re:Doesnt sound like much? by Red+Flayer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Ah, but if we're going to imagine making a tank look like a heavy truck, or a rocket launcher looking like a stack of pipes... why not just imagine world peace?

      We're about as close to achieving a usable cloak of illusion as we are to achieving world piece...

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    2. Re:Doesnt sound like much? by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Seems to me like you could just make a small tank look like a heavy truck by hanging some shit on it. Ditto for the rocket launcher situation.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Doesnt sound like much? by shaitand · · Score: 4, Funny

      The only way to do it is one step at a time, so I think I'll start by getting myself a piece.

    4. Re:Doesnt sound like much? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ..or a rocket launcher to look like a stack of pipes on satellite photos.

      Or vice versa.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re:Doesnt sound like much? by brkello · · Score: 3, Funny

      You are thinking too small. Just think what the porn industry could do with it!

      --
      Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
    6. Re:Doesnt sound like much? by rHBa · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why make a tank look like a heavy truck or a rocket launcher look like a stack of pipes when you could make them look like just another rock?

    7. Re:Doesnt sound like much? by garlicbready · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'd prefer to make a tank look like a Volkswagen beetle. just imagine the field of battle, a swarm of beetle against beetle firing tank shells at one another
      "Sarge it looks like they're bringing out the heavy artillery, I can spot 3 Ford Escorts's and what looks like postman pat's van in the distance"

      It'd be great as a car alarm / defense system, one click of a button and the car changes from a Ferrari into a Robin Reliant (let's face it no-one's going to steal one of those)

    8. Re:Doesnt sound like much? by Ambiguous+Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      That's because there's no such thing as a cloak of illusion. It's a Hat of Disguise. Sheesh.

      --
      Their may be a grammatical error, misspeling, or evn a typo in this post.
    9. Re:Doesnt sound like much? by theheadlessrabbit · · Score: 2, Funny

      Why make a tank look like a heavy truck or a rocket launcher look like a stack of pipes when you could make them look like just another rock?

      a rock? i was thinking more along the lines of making the tank look like a tree, and loading it up with armor piercing shells. combine a few of those with some prism tanks, and the only thing to worry about are soviet blimps.

      --
      -I only code in BASIC.-
    10. Re:Doesnt sound like much? by supernova_hq · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why not just build a tank that looks like a big truck?

    11. Re:Doesnt sound like much? by RudeIota · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Imagine the ability to make a tank look like a heavy truck at a distance(say to a drone)

      While that may work really well with people and detection systems that depend on light, it's probably worth pointing out that these metamaterials will probably have little affect on other methods of detection, such as radar and infrared, for example.

      Metamaterials are synthetic substances that can steer light in any way imaginable

      As I understand it, Drones have do have infrared cameras (as an example). Of course, that doesn't make much difference if the ground pilot is navigating entirely by the visible light camera and has to switch modes or something, but I'm not really sure how that stuff works. I think it's worth considering, though.

      Something else too, I imagine many autonomous systems we have / develop probably don't / won't depend on visible light either.

      I wonder how metamaterials affect other, invisible parts of the spectrum?

      --
      Fact: Everything I say is fiction.
    12. Re:Doesnt sound like much? by FiloEleven · · Score: 2, Informative

      If I remember correctly the invisibility cloak that exists (how strange to write that) is for the infrared spectrum. Visible light may be harder because the range is broader, or I could be way off base. It's a gamble!

      --
      Your brain is not a computer.
    13. Re:Doesnt sound like much? by Woy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The disguise cloak will probably be more expensive than a rocket launcher. :)

      --
      "If God created us in his own image we have more than reciprocated." - Voltaire
    14. Re:Doesnt sound like much? by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Iron Curtain READY!

      Oh noez!11 *Weeeeeeep*

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
    15. Re:Doesnt sound like much? by an.echte.trilingue · · Score: 4, Informative

      But the ammunition will be different. When you see a truck, you hit it with High Explosive (HE) or heavy machine gun fire. If you see a tank, you hit it with Kinetic Energy (KE) or High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) rounds.

      There is good reason for this. If you hit a tank with something that just explodes and rains shrapnel, the hit will just bounce off, maybe destroying the optics but that is about it. You have to pierce the armor, which you do by hitting it with something very heavy and slender (such as a rod of depleted uranium) traveling at high speed that focuses a bunch of energy on one point. The heat from the collision and spalling from the armor itself then destroys whatever is behind the armor.

      This does not work for a truck. If you hit it with a KE round, the round will just sail right through it. If there is nothing vital (the driver, engine, fuel lines, etc) where the KE round happens to pass, then the truck will just keep rolling. That is why you hit it with HE or MG fire. The many small bits of metal from an exploding HE round have a much higher chance of hitting something vital than the single big chunk from a KE round.

      As far as a tank is concerned, you usually only get one or two shots at it before it or its buddies start returning fire. If you hit it with the wrong ammunition, he is going to kill you.

      It should be noted that the inverse is also true. Making vehicles such as a truck look highly armored increases their survivability in certain situations because AT rounds are rarer than lighter ammunition and an infantry squad with a machine gun is not going attack a tank.

      --
      weirdest thing I ever saw: scientology advertising on slashdot.
    16. Re:Doesnt sound like much? by dkleinsc · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Seems to me like you could just make a small tank look like a heavy truck by hanging some shit on it. Ditto for the rocket launcher situation.

      Not only can you do that, Bernard Montgomery's Eighth Army did so at El Alamein back in 1942.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    17. Re:Doesnt sound like much? by omnipresentbob · · Score: 2, Funny

      I dunno. I've played Civilization IV, and I've seen tanks get beat up by archers or swordsmen...

  5. I see... by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Funny
    This article is full of win.

    Fiddle with an invisibility cloak, and it can make any object look like another, say researchers.

    Great! This is awesome. Now, where did I put my invisibility cloak so I can fiddle with it?

    The researchers have even found a mind-boggling application. Their idea is to create the illusion that a wall has a hole in it, and then use the hole to look through the wall.

    That's not quite as bonkers as it sounds. The wall has to be pretty thin, and what the new device does is allow light to tunnel through the wall in a way that would not ordinarily be possible. Amazing, if it works.

    Yes, the wall must be thin -- thin enough for light to pass through it. In other words, thin enough to see through without the cloak on top of it. So, in order to see through a see-through wall, we put the cloak in front of it, then make the cloak appear to be a hole, through which we can see through the see-through wall. I see.

    These gedanken experiments are nice and all, but I'll believe it when I see it. Or rather, when I don't.

    --
    "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    1. Re:I see... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Now where did I put my invisibility cloak..

      It's right in front of you.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:I see... by brianc · · Score: 4, Funny

      Their idea is to create the illusion that a wall has a hole in it

      BIG DEAL... Wile E. Coyote was doing this (courtesy of A.C.M.E. Corp.) since
      the 1960's.

      --


      SIGLOST && SIGUNUSED && SIGQUIT
  6. ugg by Dyinobal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I hate all these cloaking articles they give really great 'examples' of what could be done with such technology but the actual news is much more mundane. In fact from the small freaking article it seems they have a math proof probably not even a prototype yet.

    1. Re:ugg by smaddox · · Score: 4, Informative

      That is because the people writing these articles have no idea what they are talking about. You can't make a mouse look like an elephant, unless you are dealing with waves much longer than an elephant, in which case that would be like making a baseball look like an elephant sized baseball, and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the balls or mice or elephants. Only the size of the shadow would have relevance.

      Metamaterials can only cloak objects smaller than the wavelength of light you are dealing with. Once you start getting to half wavelength objects the cloaking turns to crap, and only works for a very very thin bandwidth. That wouldn't be very helpful for visible cloaking, because we see a wide range of wavelengths.

      What metamaterials MAY be useful is radar cloaking. There are also applications useful for scientific instruments such as NSOM (Near-field Scanning Optical Microscope), in which you can cloak the probe so that you do not interfere with the light you are trying to measure.

      Metamaterials are very interesting, but not for the layman. Move along.

  7. Magic: yes or no? by MrEricSir · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Assuming this is real, does this qualify as magic?

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
    1. Re:Magic: yes or no? by Cheney · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ask your local, neighborhood religion leader!

  8. But can they make it bigger on the inside? by mc1138 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Or travel through time and space?

    --
    The musings of just another geek and his junk.
  9. SETI by rodarson2k · · Score: 3, Funny

    So now we finally have a realistic explanation for the lack of interaction with alien life forms. They've all developed illusion cloaks to protect their spacecraft and planets and everything. They look like paperclips and rubber bands. And chapstick. That's why they're always disappearing and re-appearing.

    1. Re:SETI by TomGreenhaw · · Score: 2, Funny

      Amazingly, they all survive eating one half of a pair of socks.

      --
      Greed is the root of all evil.
    2. Re:SETI by bennomatic · · Score: 3, Funny

      I always knew Clippy was out-of-this-world!

      --
      The CB App. What's your 20?
    3. Re:SETI by LuxMaker · · Score: 2, Funny

      Great. Now all you pencil neck geeks can look like Tom Cruise now. You can emerge from your mother's basement. Victorious!

      --
      I regret that I only have one mod point to give per post.
  10. Re:Military applications by Locke2005 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Man, if only I had one of these as a kid... I would have been the undisputed champion at hide-and-go-seek!!!

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  11. vaporware by j1mmy · · Score: 4, Informative

    The summary is bad enough, talking about invisibility cloaks as if they actually exist. This and the prior work by the team are nothing more than computer models. I'm not discounting the importance of the research, just the way in which it's framed. We don't have such cloaks yet and likely won't for a long time.

  12. Re:Forget rocket launchers and tanks.. by cailith1970 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Why would women want to make themselves invisible in the locker room? Oh, right...! :)

    --
    I intend to live forever, or die trying. - Groucho Marx
  13. It's made out of unobtanium by TomGreenhaw · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Acording to the article, "The trick is to create a material in which the permittivity and permeability are complementary to the blah, blah, blah" In other words the creation of a material that doesn't (or cannot in our universe) exist. IMHO, a work of science fiction expressed in the language of mathematics.

    --
    Greed is the root of all evil.
  14. Paperclips in space? by rHBa · · Score: 2, Funny

    If I saw a disappearing and re-appearing paperclip while looking into space through a telescope I think I'd notice...

    1. Re:Paperclips in space? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      If I saw a disappearing and re-appearing paperclip while looking into space through a telescope I think I'd notice...

      Hi, it looks like you are trying to make an astronomical discovery. Would you like to...

  15. Re:So... by larry+bagina · · Score: 2, Funny

    In that case, it could keep David Copperfield in business.

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  16. Poor Girl's Version... by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/04/art-student-creates.html

  17. Re:Military applications by matrim99 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Man, if only I had one of these as a kid... I would have been the undisputed champion at hide-and-go-seek!!!

    I'll bet you would be. And you'd always happen to be "hiding" in the girl's locker room.

    Yeah... so would I.

    --
    Right. No, your other right. No, the other other right.
  18. I think it's been done before by crunchly · · Score: 5, Funny

    Because I've definitely seen elephants that weren't really there. And the weird thing is that they were always pink. And only showed up after I've had a few... Hmmmm.

  19. On future uses: by gaderael · · Score: 5, Funny

    Overheard in a girls washroom in the near future:

    "Hey, there's something wrong with the faucet on this sink. No matter how much I turn the knobs, it only dispenses soap!

    --
    Anyone got a light for my sig?
  20. Dude? by PPH · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah?

    You remember those mousetraps you put out yesterday?

    Yeah. What about them?

    Well, there's an elephant caught in one.

    No shit?

    Dude. What kind of cheese are you using?

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  21. Silly rabbit by TiggertheMad · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In fact from the small freaking article it seems they have a math proof probably not even a prototype yet.

    What makes you think there are no prototypes yet? Just because they didn't show you photos? If you were in the military, wouldn't you fly out to see these guys ASAP when you heard this? Would you give them large amounts of cash if it looked probable? Would you keep a very tight lid on any prototypes that they produced?

    I am not a believer in conspiracy theories, but I would be very disappointed in the collective militaries of the world if SOMEONE wasn't working with these guys on making this happen.

    --

    HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
    1. Re:Silly rabbit by daveime · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Just because they didn't show you photos

      Of an invisibility cloak ?

  22. Re:Amazing magic tricks? by FiloEleven · · Score: 4, Funny

    Are you really all that amazed by "Wow! That guy bought a product and used it! On stage!"?!?

    I don't know...does it run Linux?

    --
    Your brain is not a computer.