are invisibility shields real?

[karyn]

from scotsman

Scientific wizards find real cloak of invisibility

JAMES REYNOLDS
SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT


Key points
• American researchers working on 'plasmonic cover' 'cloaking device'
• Invisibility shield would prevent objects reflecting and scattering light
• Device differs from other invisibility research reliant on chameleon principle

Key quote
"The concept is an interesting one. It could find uses in stealth technology and camouflage" - Dr John Pendry, physicist, Imperial College London

Story in full A CLOAKING device that makes objects invisible is being developed by researchers, bringing the magic of Harry Potter into the world of science fact.

While Harry uses his cloak of invisibility to move about Hogwarts School unseen, electronic engineers at the University of Pennsylvania are working on a real invisibility shield called a "plasmonic cover".

The development, which works by preventing objects from reflecting and scattering light, could have widespread use in the military as it would be more effective than current stealth technology.

Although no final product has been made, the engineers claim their proposal "does not obviously violate any of the laws of physics".

Other types of invisibility cloaks have been developed before, but these mostly use the "chameleon principle" - colouring objects to match their background, enabling them to blend in and become camouflaged.

One such system involved using light detectors and emitters that project a replica of the image appearing behind an object on to its front surface.

Similarly, researchers in Tokyo are developing a camouflage fabric that uses a comparable principle where the background is projected on to light-reflecting beads in the material. Such systems are, however, dependent on the viewer from which the object is being concealed being in the right position.

A report in the journal Nature reveals that the new system is far more ambitious, being both self-contained and reducing visibility from all angles. In this sense it would be more like the shields used by the Romulans in the Star Trek episode Balance of Terror which hid their spaceship at the touch of a button.

Dr John Pendry, a physicist at Imperial College London, said: "The concept is an interesting one. It could find uses in stealth technology and camouflage."

According to Dr Andrea Alu and Dr Nader Engheta, the engineers behind the project, the key is to reduce light scattering.

Objects are visible because light bounces off them; if this can be prevented and if the objects did not reflect any light, they would become invisible. The "plasmonic screen" achieves this by resonating in tune with the illuminating light.

"Plasmons" are created when the electrons on the surface of a metallic material move in rhythm. The developers claim a shell of this material will reduce light-scatter to the extent that an object will become invisible, if the light’s frequency is close to the resonant frequency of these "plasmons". In this way, the scattering from the shell effectively cancels out the scattering from the object.

Experiments have shown that spherical or cylindrical objects coated with such shields do produce very little light scattering, which renders them nearly invisible. However, the cloak would have to be delicately tuned to suit each object it hides. Also, a specific shield may only work for one wavelength of light, rendering it invisible in, say, red light, but not in multi-wavelength daylight.

Another problem which has to be solved is that the effect would only work in daylight when the wavelength of the light being scattered is the same size as the object - meaning only tiny things can so far be hidden.

[Kidthorazine]

wait a minute if the only thing this did was to prevent reflection of light wouldnt that mean you wouldnt be able to see what wa behind it because it would block the light behind it creating an obstruction they would a appear as a black silouette because black is abscence off all light
(as exemplified by black holes)

[Morning Glory]

well it doesn't work the same way as ablack hole which can't be seen because no light reflects off of it; all light disapears into it. theoretically, as far as I can see this technology would either created a black silouette like you said, or else a strangely colored irregularity, because even if it prevents light from bouncing off of it, it would still show up in the visual feild because you'd see the light that's reflecting off of everything else around it. as far as I can see the only way to make a true "invisible feild" would be to bend light around an object so that it appears that it was in one continuous unbroken line to the eye, and you'd see all the other objects around and behind the cloaked object, but not the cloeaked object itself. this is possible, but I think it would require a power source that would have to pretty much ential an entire nucelar power plant, so it wouldn't be very practical.

[hewhoisagod]

it'd be practical for night missions, unless it doesn't do anything about infrared light.

[BrightStar]

They had some sort of Material several years ago that was just like that, but apparently was better.

They showed a display on the news, with some troops. (Either Japanese or American, I think), that were in a cityscape, practicing some combat drills in the mock city block. Apparently the buildings and stuff showed through them, like in Star Treck type cloaking ideas. **

[Drakken]

The Japanese have already developed optic camoflauge,
They were pretty shocking.(Sorry about your luck, America. lol)

[chaosfeary]

The Japanese have already developed optic camoflauge,
They were pretty shocking.(Sorry about your luck, America. lol)

Read it through again man, that stuff's old news. All that is is the image from behind being shown on the front. The chameleon effect mentioned in the article.

That one's all done in the viewfinder too, it says there, not even projected onto the person

[Drakken]

Read it through again man, that stuff's old news. All that is is the image from behind being shown on the front. The chameleon effect mentioned in the article.

That one's all done in the viewfinder too, it says there, not even projected onto the person

But my point was they still had it first.

[killerkat]

they had something like this years ago,it was almost like a chemical if i remember right,it made it look kinda like a "predetor"thing(the movies) kinda shaped but invisable non the less,don't know if it ever went anywhere thought.....

[a_small_death]

Well the science here dosn't sound right. In order to make an object transparent as I understand it, the object must be able to bend light. I could be wrong.