Latest Cloak Stories
Optical cloaking approach described in Optics Express shows potential for myriad futuristic applicationsInvisibility cloaks are seemingly futuristic devices capable of concealing very small objects by bending and channeling light around them. Until now, however, cloaking techniques have come with a significant limitation"”they need to be orders of magnitude larger than the object being cloaked.This places serious constraints on practical applications, particularly for the optoelectronics...
Liz Ahlberg, Physical Sciences Editor, University of IllinoisIn one University of Illinois lab, invisibility is a matter of now you hear it, now you don't.Led by mechanical science and engineering professor Nicholas Fang, Illinois researchers have demonstrated an acoustic cloak, a technology that renders underwater objects invisible to sonar and other ultrasound waves."We are not talking about science fiction. We are talking about controlling sound waves by bending and twisting them in a...
Researchers have successfully rendered a minute bump on a gold surface invisible, using special masking technology that could someday bring true invisibility cloaks from the realms of science fiction and fantasy into reality.Scientists from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany and Imperial College London "used photonic crystals with a structure that looks like piles of wood to make an invisibility device, or cloak," Reuters reporter Kate Kelland wrote in a March 18...
Schools and hospitals could one day be protected from feeling the effects of an earthquake. CNRS researchers at the Institute Fresnel in Marseille (1) have come up with a system that could protect buildings from the most destructive seismic waves. Based on mathematical models, such an 'invisibility cloak' could find applications ranging from the automobile and aviation industries to earthquake protection. The paper appears in the journal Physical Review Letters dated 10 July 2009.The...
Two teams of scientists have developed a cloak that renders objects invisible to near-infrared light, BBC News reported.The new technology, however, does not contain metals unlike previous such "cloaks" that resulted in imperfect cloaking because of losses of light.Researchers say that since the approach can be scaled down further in size, the new technology is a major step towards a cloak that would work for visible light.John Pendry from Imperial College London first theorized a...
A real cloak of invisibility is no longer hidden to researchers at Duke University, who developed a material that can "cloak" an item from detection by microwaves. In fact, scientists said that they have even expanded the number of wavelengths they can block.In 2006, the team reported they had developed " meta materials" that could deflect microwaves around a three-dimensional object, making it invisible to the waves.The system works like a mirage, where heat causes the bending of...
SCIENTISTS at the University of Liverpool have tested an 'invisibility cloak' that could protect against tsunamis. City mathematicians, working with European physicists, have found that coastal defences could be made 'invisible' when water is guided through a special structure called metamaterial. Dr Sebastien Guenneau, from the University's Department of Mathematical Science, said: "Defending land against flooding and tidal waves is a big issue for scientists and engineers all over the...
WASHINGTON -- Imagine an invisibility cloak that works just like the one Harry Potter inherited from his father. Researchers in England and the United States think they know how to do that. They are laying out the blueprint and calling for help in developing the exotic materials needed to build a cloak.The keys are special manmade materials, unlike any in nature or the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. These materials are intended to steer light and other forms of electromagnetic...
