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‘Cloaking’ Device uses Ordinary Lenses to Hide Objects Across Range of Angles

posted by janrinok on Monday September 29 2014, @07:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the I-just-don't-see-it dept.

AnonTechie writes:

Inspired perhaps by Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak, scientists have recently developed several ways—some simple and some involving new technologies—to hide objects from view. The latest effort, developed at the University of Rochester, not only overcomes some of the limitations of previous devices, but it uses inexpensive, readily available materials in a novel configuration.

“There’ve been many high tech approaches to cloaking and the basic idea behind these is to take light and have it pass around something as if it isn’t there, often using high-tech or exotic materials,” said John Howell, a professor of physics at the University of Rochester. Forgoing the specialized components, Howell and graduate student Joseph Choi developed a combination of four standard lenses that keeps the object hidden as the viewer moves up to several degrees away from the optimal viewing position.

“This is the first device that we know of that can do three-dimensional, continuously multi-directional cloaking, which works for transmitting rays in the visible spectrum,” said Choi, a PhD student at Rochester’s Institute of Optics.

http://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/watch-rochester-cloak-uses-ordinary-lenses-to-hide-objects-across-continuous-range-of-angles-70592/

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Monday September 29 2014, @08:04PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Monday September 29 2014, @08:04PM (#99749)

    They filed a patent for using lenses to direct light rays coming from a narrow region of space around another region of space and then back along the original path.
    I'm pretty sure we covered that math in high school. the "range of angles" is probably pretty darn narrow.

    I'm glad they didn't use mirrors, can you imagine the number of magicians filing a lawsuit?

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  • (Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Monday September 29 2014, @09:01PM

    by JeanCroix (573) on Monday September 29 2014, @09:01PM (#99767)
    Yeah, I was expecting something a little more innovative. I can remember taking basic geometric optics and drawing ray diagrams of various lens combinations - the prof even pointed to a spot right next to the system focal point and said "an object placed here would not be visible through the eyepiece." But ooh invisibility cloak people!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 30 2014, @09:56AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 30 2014, @09:56AM (#99928)

      Indeed, their "invisibility cloak" is itself very visible. The point of an invisibility cloak is that you see nothing special. If I were to hide behind this "invisibility cloak" I could just as well hide behind an opaque object. Yes, you wouldn't see what's behind me, but hey, I would be invisible!

      Maybe I should patent my invisibility cloak made out of cardboard. ;-)

      BTW, magicians for a long time used "invisibility cloaks" which didn't even need fancy lenses, but worked with simple mirrors!