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That old invisibility cloak, was so last year...
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2011/02/25/17406846.html
Cloak of deception better than cloak of invisibility
By QMI Agency
Cloaks of invisibility are totally last year's news. Enter the new coolest toy: cloaks of illusion.
"It's easier to falsify something than it hide it," John Pendry, one of the researchers working on the project at the Imperial College of London, told New Scientist.
The theoretical implications are more interesting than the actual research at this stage, but by manipulating the way light and electrical fields interact with an object -- rather than trying to stop them from interacting with it at all -- researchers have been able to hide that object's true nature.
The research involved a simple copper cylinder. Copper is known to be a great conductor of electricity and reflect radio waves that are thrown at it, giving it a massive radar signature.
But by slipping a sleeve of circuit boards containing metal channels that manipulate the way electricity and radio waves interacted with the copper cylinder, they were able to make it look like a porcelain cylinder.
"In principle, this technology could be used to make an illusion of an arbitrary shape and size," Tie Jun Cui, a researcher in China, said about the trick.
It might be a long way off, but some day technology like this could be used to disguise your new car as a 1980s beater while you're in the movie theatre.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2011/02/25/17406846.html
Cloak of deception better than cloak of invisibility
By QMI Agency
Cloaks of invisibility are totally last year's news. Enter the new coolest toy: cloaks of illusion.
"It's easier to falsify something than it hide it," John Pendry, one of the researchers working on the project at the Imperial College of London, told New Scientist.
The theoretical implications are more interesting than the actual research at this stage, but by manipulating the way light and electrical fields interact with an object -- rather than trying to stop them from interacting with it at all -- researchers have been able to hide that object's true nature.
The research involved a simple copper cylinder. Copper is known to be a great conductor of electricity and reflect radio waves that are thrown at it, giving it a massive radar signature.
But by slipping a sleeve of circuit boards containing metal channels that manipulate the way electricity and radio waves interacted with the copper cylinder, they were able to make it look like a porcelain cylinder.
"In principle, this technology could be used to make an illusion of an arbitrary shape and size," Tie Jun Cui, a researcher in China, said about the trick.
It might be a long way off, but some day technology like this could be used to disguise your new car as a 1980s beater while you're in the movie theatre.