Scientists unveil invisibility cloak big enough to hide a human or a satellite orbiting earth - so long as you look at it from one direction only

  • Scientists have shown how to steer light around objects using mirrors
  • Device could be used to hide a human or a satellite orbiting Earth
  • Design has been used for years but not on such a large scale

By James Rush

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Scientists have unveiled how to make invisibility cloaks that are big enough to hide a human - or even a satellite orbiting the earth.

As the interest in creating Harry Potter-style cloaks continues to grow, researchers in America have shown how a simple trick used for years by magicians can create the desired effect.

Using conventional lenses and mirrors, the scientists are able to steer light around the region of space they want to hide.

While it's not quite the same as the invisibility cloak worn by Harry Potter, scientists have revealed how it is possible to steer light around the region of space they want to hide using lenses and mirrors

While it's not quite the same as the invisibility cloak worn by Harry Potter, scientists have revealed how it is possible to steer light around the region of space they want to hide using lenses and mirrors

Over the last ten years scientists have investigated two main ways of creating invisibility cloaks, according to the MIT Technology Review.

'Transformation optics' involves bending light around an object to make it look as if it wasn't there.
Metamaterials meanwhile are synthetic substances which can also achieve the same aim through using certain optical properties.

Neither technology is perfect, but John Howell, from the University of Rochester, New York, and Benjamin Howell have now shown how to build a device big enough to cloak a person using an array of lenses and mirrors to steer light around a region of space.

 

Images released by the pair show how they are able to cloak objects - one image shows how half of a chair has been cloaked but the rubbish bin behind it is still visible.

The Howells said: 'This volume is sufficient to cloak a human, albeit with not as much convenience as Harry Potter's cloak.'

The design has been used for years but the Howells have said they wanted to point out how easily it could be scaled accordingly.

The devices could be used to cloak satellites in mid to high-Earth orbit

The devices could be used to cloak satellites in mid to high-Earth orbit

A major caveat in the design is that they only work in one direction - viewing the cloaks from any other pint of view reveals the device.

But the Howells have said: 'The devices may have value, for example, in cloaking satellites in mid to high-Earth orbit.'

Earlier this week, scientists unveiled a 'time cloak' which bends light to tear holes in time itself.

The device could have important implications for sending secret messages via fibre optic cables.

It can hide a continuous stream of events at telecommunications data rates - much quicker than a similar invention unveiled last year.

Researchers used equipment known as modulators to make the holes by bending light, Nature reported.

Although a long way off the fictional 'invisibility cloaks' featured in Star Trek and the Harry Potter films the concept could have practical applications to conceal messages.

OPTICAL ILLUSION- A QUICK GUIDE

At its most basic level, a cloaking device simply guides light around an object as if the object wasn't there.

An example of technology that does this is an endoscope which is used to image hollow organs in the human body.

Much of the research into invisibility cloaks to date has focused on the use of metamaterials.

These are synthetic substances that can guide light using their unique optical properties.

Instead of using complex meta materials to steer light, the researchers at Rochester University did the same job with off-the-shelf lenses and mirrors.

Their array of lenses or mirrors was shown to steer light around the region of space they want to hide.

This means their cloaks were simple to build and easy to scale. Mirrors, in particular, can be made almost any size.

The researchers demonstrated cloaking over the visible spectrum with cloaking regions exceeding 106 mm3.

The comments below have not been moderated.

Ok, so where is it? I saw the satellite, and the Harry Potter trick was computerized. Or am I NOT suppose to see it?

Click to rate     Rating   6

So if you out this around on all side then you would completely be invisible? Am I right or am I not?

Click to rate     Rating   4

@- Mark6597, Southampton, United Kingdom, 7/6/2013 17:30: OK, I'll bite so you can watch\listen to them without them knowing that there is something overhead perhaps.

Click to rate     Rating   1

So only hidden in 1 direction? So I take 1 step to the right and i've ruined the party trick then.

Click to rate     Rating   4

My wife want me to get one and then stand in the corner.....she won't explain why

Click to rate     Rating   2

How do they know where it is if its invisible? You'd be raging if you put it down then couldn't find it.....

Click to rate     Rating   3

So they make a satalite invisible......and watch everything crash into it!

Click to rate     Rating   1

PRISM database of non-Americans + Invisibility + drone programme = Disaster.

Click to rate     Rating   6

So - less of a cloak - more of a fig leaf.

Click to rate     Rating   4

The government has been using one for ages to hide their expense accounts!! Look you can't see my snout in the trough!!

Click to rate     Rating   7
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