Invisibility cloak just around the corner?

[w1z4rd]

The race to build an exotic material with a negative refractive index for visible light has been won by a team of researchers in Germany. The demonstration could open the door to a new generation of optical devices such as superlenses able to see details finer then the wavelength of visible light.

It may also lead to further breakthroughs in "invisibility cloaks" which could hide objects from the human eye.

Light waves consist of alternating electric and magnetic fields that interact with materials as they travel, or propagate. This interaction determines a property of the material called its refractive index, which is a measure of the behaviour of light as it passes through the material. The refractive index describes the way the light waves bend when they enter and leave the material and the speed at which they propagate.

The refractive index of normal materials is always positive – 1.0003 in air, about 1.5 in ordinary glass, 2.1 in zircon, and 2.4 in diamond. In the mid-1990s, however, John Pendry of Imperial College London realised that it was possible to construct artificial materials in which the refractive index could be negative.

Read more....

 

[Jongi]

make it so

 

[(DmZ)Wrecky]

I saw that on a Gadget show a couple of days ago.. Cewl

 

[noswal]

Well...if the other bunch of scientists are making a borg chip, then they'd better hurry up.

 

[Leitmotif]

*Somebody call for an exterminator?*
*Call the shot.*

 

[Highflyer_GP]

Who wants to wager that some of you would use it to get into the ladies change rooms

 

[jontyB]

Who wants to wager that some of you would use it to get into the ladies change rooms

Industrial Espionage, bank robberies, serial murders, hidden speed cameras, scaring the cr@p outta your kids... yeah, many uses.

 

[Highflyer_GP]

Yeah come to think of it, I can't really picture many positive uses for it

 

[(DmZ)Wrecky]

Imagine two of you covered with said cloth in the same room. SIS

Even cars covered in the cloth should then have technology to see others in their cloaks, otherwise there will be invisible accidents..

 

[Piesang]

What a bunch of rubbish. That will never happen, Invisibility cloak. hahahahaha

 

[jontyB]

Imagine two of you covered with said cloth in the same room. SIS

Even cars covered in the cloth should then have technology to see others in their cloaks, otherwise there will be invisible accidents..

ROFL.

What if you fall pregnant while covered in a invisible coat... will you have an invisible kid?

 

[(DmZ)Wrecky]

What a bunch of rubbish. That will never happen, Invisibility cloak. hahahahaha

I have seen it working..

 

[Highflyer_GP]

What a bunch of rubbish. That will never happen, Invisibility cloak. hahahahaha

I dunno, wouldn't say that it's impossible. Two decades ago we thought it was impossible for planes to avoid radar.

 

[Piesang]

I dunno, wouldn't say that it's impossible. Two decades ago we thought it was impossible for planes to avoid radar.

Yeah, maybe I'll have a look at my post in a few years time and think, why did I say its impossible.

 

[neio]

Intresting

 

[SeanH]

/me ninjas the invisibility cloak

 

[Aphrael]

Oi Vey, SeanH, TIAL is gonna ninja you back for that one

But on a serious note, do you think an invisible cloak will be commercialised? Something like that would have to be limited in terms of availability.

 

[Natas]

Oi Vey, SeanH, TIAL is gonna ninja you back for that one

But on a serious note, do you think an invisible cloak will be commercialised? Something like that would have to be limited in terms of availability.

I envisage a world where all men, women and children have invicibility cloaks. Now is the time to form an organisation whose main function it is to ensure that invisibility cloaks are accepted as basic human rights. Starving people, in one of those african countries where people starve, should be given free invisibility cloaks. So that in their time of need, they can be invisible.....

But on a serious note, the stuff will become more freely available as the technology gets cheaper. Like when Vlecro first came out, the technology was new and only rich governments like USA could afford velcro. But then the technonology beca,e cheaper and now you even kids sneakers that use velcro technology...

 

[Telkomisaloser]

hmmmmmm I think this will greatly reduce the chances I get caught ninja'ing someone

 

[AntiThesis]

I think you'd manage TIAL