spoiler Invisibility cloak that 'bends light around itself' could be a reality in two years

[AlexJames]

A British scientist has been awarded more than £100,000 to develop a real life Harry Potter invisibility cloak.

 

Physicist Prof Ulf Leonhardt of the University of St Andrews believes he can make a 'major leap' towards a cloaking device in just two years.

 

The professor - who cites the Invisible Woman and J K Rowling as sources of inspiration - will use the cash to develop a material that bends light around itself, making it invisible to the naked eye.

 

Scientists have been attempting to create invisibility for years. However, the methods used in the existing prototypes only work with a narrow range of light waves.

 

Prof Leonhardt - who describes his works as 'geometry, light and a wee bit of magic' - believes his cloaking device could be more practical.

 

Normally, when light hits an object, it bounces off the surface and into the naked eye, making it visible.

 

An invisibly cloak would work by 'grabbing hold' of light waves and making them flow smoothly around an object. The light waves would be deflected in such a way to make an object vanish.

 

'Broadband invisibility clearly is blue-skies research,' said Prof Leonhardt.

 

'I will try my best to explore how far one can go, but I cannot guarantee that at the end of the project invisibility will be easy to achieve in practice.

 

'I will most certainly find easier ways of cloaking, but it remains to be seen how practical they are.

 

'The important thing is to understand the foundations and come up with something new or take an existing idea to extremes; using technology and ideas to make things happen – technology we cannot imagine would ever exist.'

 

The professor is basing his work on Einstein's theory of curved space. According to the theory, any large object such as a star distorts the fabric of the universe so that light travelling past it curves.

 

For an cloaking device to work, light would have to be bent around an object in such a way that it vanished.

 

'Imagine a transparent material that guides light around an object without distorting the light,' he said.

 

'The object would disappear from view.

 

'One way of achieving this feat is to let the material act like a coordinate transformation of space: the cloaking device condenses space, enclosing the object into a single, invisible point.'

Money for the two year research project comes from the Royal Society's Theo Murphy Blue Skies award. The award is given for researchers working on novel and ground-breaking research.

 

He will investigate 'optical metamaterials' - materials with unusual electromagnetic properties.

 

If the work is a success it could lead to the sort of invisibility shields used by James Bond, Harry Potter and the Romulans in Star Trek.

 

The professor believes similar shields could manipulate other types of waves - and could even protect the coastline from ocean waves.

 

The work, which he calls broadband cloaking, could also lead to devices that enhance visibility - such as brighter cats eyes on roads, better microscopes and improved lenses.

 

Earlier this year, New Scientist magazine predicted that invisibility cloaks could be part of everyday life in 30 years.

 

So far scientists have only managed to make objects invisible using microwaves rather than visible light waves.

[Rob]

Many years ago I saw some stuff about US marines uniforms that could "bend" light, or maybe project the rear image onto the front, sort of like a Predator, but still quite visible.

It was intended as camouflage rather than full-on invisibility.

[Al Massey]

Many years ago I saw some stuff about US marines uniforms that could "bend" light, or maybe project the rear image onto the front, sort of like a Predator, but still quite visible.

It was intended as camouflage rather than full-on invisibility.

 

Ive seen a small box that goes invisble using projectors and camera's.

 

Was really good and you could only just make out the shape as it was distorted.

 

That was at a defense exibition and they reckon it could be implemented soon

[mawby]

This is nothing new. I remember at school once one of my friends put a spell on me and then I was invisible! No one could see or hear me - it was great! That was until I decided to take advantage of the situation and walk into the girls locker room. My friend thought it would be funny to cancel the spell as I walked in so all the girls could see me! I don't know what was worse. 2 weeks of detention, a visit from the shrink because I was adamant I had been made invisible, or the Chinese burns I received from the girls rugby team who where changing in the locker room at the time.

[Steve]

This is nothing new. I remember at school once one of my friends put a spell on me and then I was invisible! No one could see or hear me - it was great! That was until I decided to take advantage of the situation and walk into the girls locker room. My friend thought it would be funny to cancel the spell as I walked in so all the girls could see me! I don't know what was worse. 2 weeks of detention, a visit from the shrink because I was adamant I had been made invisible, or the Chinese burns I received from the girls rugby team who where changing in the locker room at the time.

 

[Frank Bullitt]

This is nothing new. I remember at school once one of my friends put a spell on me and then I was invisible! No one could see or hear me - it was great! That was until I decided to take advantage of the situation and walk into the girls locker room. My friend thought it would be funny to cancel the spell as I walked in so all the girls could see me! I don't know what was worse. 2 weeks of detention, a visit from the shrink because I was adamant I had been made invisible, or the Chinese burns I received from the girls rugby team who where changing in the locker room at the time.

:rlol:

[stevie_b]

once one of my friends put a spell on me and then I was invisible! No one could see or hear me - it was great! That was until I decided to take advantage of the situation and walk into the girls locker room. My friend thought it would be funny to cancel the spell as I walked in so all the girls could see me!

 

...but that was a good couple of years ago now, and you're feeling much better these days...

 

About the invisibility device, it's an interesting area of research. I always thought it would be difficult/near-impossible to produce a decent invisibility device because of differences in the observer's location.

[R Black]

Read about this before, however im not sure how this would be applied to ocean waves? if you made the traffic on a motorway invisible, i.e. you would still get runover by them if you sat in the middle. Think i may see if i can find out more on how his work will make an object get out of phase.

[stevie_b]

This is nothing new. I remember at school once one of my friends put a spell on me and then I was invisible! No one could see or hear me - it was great! That was until I decided to take advantage of the situation and walk into the girls locker room. My friend thought it would be funny to cancel the spell as I walked in so all the girls could see me! I don't know what was worse. 2 weeks of detention, a visit from the shrink because I was adamant I had been made invisible, or the Chinese burns I received from the girls rugby team who where changing in the locker room at the time.

 

That's not how it ends in the films I've watched.

[Lbm]

Trouble is once the device is switched on, the subject would be hard to find and turn off again. They haven't thought it through.

[stevie_b]

Read about this before, however im not sure how this would be applied to ocean waves? if you made the traffic on a motorway invisible, i.e. you would still get runover by them if you sat in the middle. Think i may see if i can find out more on how his work will make an object get out of phase.

 

Many types of wave (light, ocean, sound) oscillate around some kind of equilibrium point that represents the case when/before no wave is present. This means that peaks in waves can be cancelled using troughs.

 

You can't apply the same principle to traffic: traffic movements (i.e. vehicles a passing a given point) are all positive displacements from the no-vehicle condition (i.e. an empty road). There isn't an "anti-car" or "out-of-phase car" you can apply to cancel out the existance of a car.

[mawby]

There isn't an "anti-car" or "out-of-phase car" you can apply to cancel out the existance of a car.

What about reverse?

[Charlotte]

Ooo I'd love one of those.

[fizzle]

dibbs on the idea to make car covers with it..... now if only i could remember where i parked!!!

[dangerous brain]

Well technically its all been done already!! The jaguar jet reconnaisance aircraft has camera in the nose. Its right in the point of the nose. Because its a supersonic jet that has to be reinforced at the tip, its reinforced with an aluminium structural piece. That is slap bang in the middle of the camera's vision. The glass in the nose uses prismatic refraction and looking from the inside out there is no structural piece. The view out is optically perfect. If that was possible with a bit of glass 30 years ago with crystal technology these days and electricity who knows?

[stevie_b]

Ooo I'd love one of those.

 

Perv!