Slashdot Mirror
'Invisibility Cloak' Created Using Crystals
Zothecula writes "The quest to build a working 'invisibility cloak' generally focuses on the use of metamaterials – artificially engineered materials with a negative refractive index that have already been used to render microscopic objects invisible in specific wavelengths of light. Now, using naturally occurring crystals rather than metamaterials, two research teams working independently have demonstrated technology that can cloak larger objects in the broad range of wavelengths visible to the human eye. PDFs of the two similarly named research papers are available through arXiv.org."
...Another invisibility cloak article on Slashdot.
When can I wear this into the women's changing room?
"for the first time, the cloaking area is rendered at a size that is big enough for the observer to ‘see’ the invisible object with the naked eye"
If you can see it that means it's NOT working.
I had a 3"-on-a-side parallelepiped of this stuff when I was four. Now they're telling me it can be used to make things invisible, and they're just now figuring it out? Wacky.
Now to work on "God Mode"
From reading the article I get mostly that it's done all with Mirrors and prisms essentially. Maybe someone else can point out what's so exciting about this?
If the refraction of the light prevents you from being seen, it will prevent you from seeing as well.
Nothing to see here, move along...
"I'll believe it when I see it."
I am officially gone from
Does it work when the background isn't a solid color?
Hold on, I almost forgot to insert the crystals.
Here's one:
Invisibility cloak? BS - I'll believe it when I see it!
"But this one goes to 11!"
screw the invisibility cloak! Give me Stealth Camouflage!
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Are we any closer to our goal of being able to sneak into women's locker rooms undetected?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
This is so Inspector Gadget...
Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
Am I the only one who's thinking that this technology will most quickly adapted for stage magician acts?
Does anyone else think of "Doctor Dinosaur" from Atomic Robo when reading this article?
http://www.nuklearpower.com/2009/07/24/free-comic-book-day-2009/
--Rachel
Around here at this time of year naturally occuring crystals can cause objects to disappear., especially in high winds. In some cases even after the wind has subsided, things can remain hidden by being covered with a layer of these 6 sided crystals. There are 2 solutions, wait until the temperature increases and the crystals melt, or to use a shovel....
This is the same type of 'invisibility' preformed by magicians: i.e. mirrors.
Did somebody actually get a grant for this work?
One day, when they finally crack this technology, we will miss the constant false alarms on /.
If an Invisible Cloak falls in the woods and no one around see it, does it make a sound?
Am I eval()? - http://www.monst3r.com.br
Didn't David Copperfield make an elephant disappear the same way?
Tile the outer wall of the women's changing room with calcite. That will render the wall invisible from the outside so you will be able to look in.
My initial reaction was Bunk! Disclosing the details of a technology so obviously useful to DoD would border on treason. There seems to be room to speculate the PR is disinformation.
``Tension, apprehension & dissension have begun!'' - Duffy Wyg&, in Alfred Bester's _The Demolished Man_
this isn't an invisibility cloak; it's high school physics.
No, really, once you get over that fact that calcite has been known for its double refraction property for literally hundreds of years, and every child ever to get its hands on a lump of it trying to make it show weird shit, you'll realize that these people have figured out how to make stuff disappear when you look at it from exactly the right angle... Yawn. The calcite remains visible, obviously, BTW.
OK. I guess that's one way of defining invisible.
So I can't see the pink material... I can still see the wedge of reflective material covering it. By this definition, I could throw a blanket over it and - 'poof' - it's invisible...
I, for one, would like to welcome our over lords, but I can't see them. So they must be wearing this invisibility crystals!
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Negative index of refraction violates the second law of thermodynamics:
http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-16-23-19152
I'll believe it when I see it.
a real invisibility cloak..and all it took was redefining the terms "invisibility", and "cloak". Hell if I knew it was that easy, I'd have invented one years ago.
Didn't Erik the Viking do this with a simple bit of cloth?
Nothing new to see here.
I could throw a blanket over it and - 'poof' - it's invisible...
But there are two thousand years of prior art on that technology...
Here, invisible women.
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
'Relatively' invisible may not be good enough. In this book the main character was invisible except for his retinas. H. G. Wells had thought it out, if light didn't interact at all with his eyes he would be blind.
There was a moment when he was discovered because someone noticed those two tiny spots moving around.
"I solemly swear I am up to no good."
Guys, GUYS. I invented a time machine. It's an ingenious device that can be programmed to generate loud, audible signals at a specific point in time. All you have to do is program the device with a time set in the future, and then fall asleep. When you wake up - presumably via aural stimulation from my invention - you will be in the FUTURE!
Suck it, Einstein.
Attention Slashdot:
Please stop posting these stupid damn stories. The first time was interesting, but 50 stories later I do not care if some dude can surround a ping pong ball with crystals/copper tubes/gremlins etc and make it invisible at 2.4506 Ghz in a flat plane.
no idea why you got downranked, I laughed... just no mod points to unfuck your rank.
Can I has Prism Tanks?
a jar of alcohol, it becomes invisible? I saw this in the Crystal Skull of Doom (it's not just some Indiana Jones thing only) documentary at topdocumentaryfilms.com which shows it being done, pretty cool too. It's just about up there with watching a "super-liquid" and how it behaves, imo at least, and at a fraction of the cost! And, no wise-asses - this isn't about drinking fucking booze either, for those of you about to make some snide crack about it because you've tipped 1/2 a case of the magical liquids with it being Saturday nite and all.
150 crystals AND 150 gas.
When the policeman of the tie, rule you violate, hello punishment of the kitty?
Yes invisibility crystals... Excellent!
Now all we need is the power wand, and the stone who magically brings people back to life