New Material Could Make Objects Invisible.

**nitsuJ** · 08-11-2008 06:42 PM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/...jectsinvisible

Scientists have taken another step toward the goal of rendering objects invisible using high-tech cloaks that redirect light.

Researchers for the first time demonstrated that a new material can bend visible light the wrong way in three dimensional tests. It builds on research that cloaks objects in the microwave wavelength.

The research, announced today, will be detailed later this week in the journals Nature and Science.

The metamaterial, as it is called, produces what's known as negative refraction of visible light. That means light is made to travel in the opposite direction from how it normally should bend when passing through a material. A common example is how a pencil will appear to bend upward when half-submerged in a glass of water. In the new work, researchers make the light appear to bend the other way.

Metamaterials are artificially engineered structures that have "extraordinary optical properties that do not exist in nature," the researchers write in Science. "They can alter the propagation of electromagnetic waves, resulting in negative refraction, subwavelength imaging and cloaking."

Visible light is just one type of electromagnetic radiation, a spectrum that includes everything from radio waves to X-rays and more.

Until now, the effectiveness of the cloaking has been demonstrated only in thin, two-dimensional materials.

Now at a National Science Foundation lab at the University of California, Berkeley, Jason Valentine, Jie Yao, Xiang Zhang and others have create a multilayered, "fishnet structure" that "unambiguously exhibits negative refractive index," they write.

"This straightforward and elegant demonstration enhances our ability to mould and harness light at will," according to a statement from the journal Nature.

Other research has looked into using plasmons - tiny electronic excitations on the surfaces of some metals - to cancel out the visible light or other radiation coming from an object and effectively cloak it.

Sci-fi fans know that cloaking technology made Romulan spaceships disappear in Star Trek. Among the real applications pondered for the future of real-world cloaking technology: stealth military devices and new medical techniques.

**ChrissyMaria** · 08-11-2008 08:17 PM

Sweet I always wanted to be invisible

Bill: 10,000,000$

Hmm, who knows the cost? heh

**slayer** · 08-11-2008 08:47 PM

I demand pictures!

**nitsuJ** · 08-11-2008 10:08 PM

it didn't show any pictures but basically it's just going to be some type of fabric that reflects the light off of it somehow

**cuddleyperson** · 08-11-2008 10:39 PM

meh like all my friends are invisible, this aint new stuff.

**ChrissyMaria** · 08-11-2008 11:04 PM

Originally Posted by cuddleyperson

meh like all my friends are invisible, this aint new stuff.

If you are the army wants to hire you

**Man of Steel** · 08-12-2008 12:24 AM

Originally Posted by cuddleyperson

meh like all my friends are invisible, this aint new stuff.

Just because you can't see them doesn't mean that they are there.

**Grod** · 08-12-2008 12:29 AM

Originally Posted by slayer

I demand pictures!

What would you be looking for?

**Man of Steel** · 08-12-2008 12:30 AM

This:

.

.

.

**Grod** · 08-12-2008 12:46 AM

There's about 1,000 invisible people in this picture. I promise.

**nitsuJ** · 08-12-2008 12:49 AM

Originally Posted by Grod

There's about 1,000 invisible people in this picture. I promise.

ohh ohh i see one!!

**Grod** · 08-12-2008 01:12 AM

You've got 999 left to go, big guy.

**DNK** · 08-12-2008 09:19 AM

Didn't they cover a tank in something like that in the UK earlier this year?

**Xaqaria** · 08-12-2008 11:38 AM

Its not a fabric, its this:

Basically, its a super small (nanometers) structure of coiled copper that causes a negative refraction in certain wavelengths. Instead of just bouncing back, the electromagnetic waves refract back and forth along the grid and follow the outside of the structure to return to their normal pattern on the other side of the object "like water flows around a rock".

Unfortunately, it only works in 2 dimensions and the structure of the material must be smaller than the wavelength of light; so in order to make it work in the visible spectrum, they will have to be capable of building nano-structures atom by atom.

**DNK** · 08-13-2008 06:34 AM

Yeah, now that I think more about it, this tech is still in its infancy, and the tank tech was LCDs or something like that.

**nitsuJ** · 08-13-2008 06:42 AM

Originally Posted by DNK

Yeah, now that I think more about it, this tech is still in its infancy, and the tank tech was LCDs or something like that.

i know what you're talking about i believe, wasn't that a few years ago? i think it dealt with cameras and screens, or something like that, it'd take what was actually behind it or to the side of it and reflect that image to make it look like it wasn't there or something.. it would of been about like a mirror except without any glare.. or something like that.

**DNK** · 08-14-2008 02:50 AM

Originally Posted by nitsuJ

i know what you're talking about i believe, wasn't that a few years ago? i think it dealt with cameras and screens, or something like that, it'd take what was actually behind it or to the side of it and reflect that image to make it look like it wasn't there or something.. it would of been about like a mirror except without any glare.. or something like that.

No, fairly recent. It was all top secret, but it wasn't just projecting an image onto a tank. The thing apparently completely disappeared, although only in one fixed direction of view.

**nitsuJ** · 08-14-2008 03:00 AM

Originally Posted by DNK

No, fairly recent. It was all top secret, but it wasn't just projecting an image onto a tank. The thing apparently completely disappeared, although only in one fixed direction of view.

i looked into it:

http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/...bond_style.php

Quite reminding you of Q or David Copperfield, the Ministry of Defense has unveiled a new technology that can make tanks invisible. They carried out secret trials recently and have stated that the invisible tank would be ready for service by 2012. The technology involves using cameras and projectors to beam images of the surrounding landscape onto a tank. As a result, anyone looking in the direction of the vehicle only sees what is beyond it and not the tank itself. According to a soldier present at the trial, "This technology is incredible. If I hadn't been present I wouldn't have believed it. I looked across the fields and just saw grass and trees - but in reality I was staring down the barrel of a tank gun." The Ministry is also working on a military jacket that works on the same principle. MoD's Professor Sir John Pendry, of Imperial College London, has developed this latest technology.

How the 'invisible' tanks perform in actual conditions is quite speculative. The only drawback seems to be the reliability of the cameras and projectors. According to Sir John Pendry "The next stage is to make the tank invisible without them - which is intricate and complicated, but possible."

**slayer** · 08-14-2008 12:58 PM

Somehow that tank looks photoshopped.

Edit:

Reader Comments

1.
Pete on "

That image, taken from the source article, only represents an "artist's impression" of how the tank would look. You should make that clear.

Ah...it's just an artist's impression

Thread: New Material Could Make Objects Invisible.

LinkBack

Thread Tools

Display

New Material Could Make Objects Invisible.

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions