Ultrathin 'Invisibility Cloak' Can Match Any Background

Oh this is just amazing, but the thing i really wanted was hands from Harry Potter, that would be amazing

In the movie "Predator," an alien uses a cloaking device to hide in plain sight, but the effect is far from perfect: The alien's attempt to conceal itself is thwarted by distortions of light bending around it. Now, researchers have built an ultrathin "invisibility cloak" that gets around this problem, by turning objects into perfect, flat mirrors.

Invisibility cloaks are designed to bend light around an object, but materials that do this are typically hard to shape and only work from narrow angles — if you walk around the cloaked object, for instance, it's visible. But a new cloak avoids that problem, and is thin and flexible enough to be wrapped around an object of any shape, the researchers said. It can also be "tuned" to match whatever background is behind it — or can even create illusions of what's there, they added.

Led by Xiang Zhang, director of materials science at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the group constructed a thin film consisting of a 50-nanometer-thick layer of magnesium fluoride topped by a varying pattern of tiny, brick-shaped gold antennas, each 30 nanometers thick. (For comparison, an average strand of human hair is about 100,000 nanometers wide.) The "bricks" were built in six different sizes, ranging from about 30 to 220 nanometers long and 90 to 175 nanometers wide.

Source for those who want to see more

a reply to: Frocharocha

So it begins, our ascension into godhood, exciting times we live in.

as an applied science....not so bueno

but as an advancement in materials science...pretty cool

If they could tune it to do the same with heat, then i can see some pretty fantastic applied science out of this.

I want one. Can you imagine a bank robber just walking into a bank and robbing it, and no one can see him?
This technology would be dangerous in the wrong hands.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
as an applied science....not so bueno

but as an advancement in materials science...pretty cool

If they could tune it to do the same with heat, then i can see some pretty fantastic applied science out of this.

You mena liek the Therm optic camo from GITS? Yeah I am sure DARPA has some fans of that show in it.

I used to have one these cloaks, but I can't remember where I put it

a reply to: Frocharocha

I was in Your living room when You posted this... Sometimes when I 'beam in' folks think I'm "Special".. What could go wrong?

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
as an applied science....not so bueno

but as an advancement in materials science...pretty cool

If they could tune it to do the same with heat, then i can see some pretty fantastic applied science out of this.

This system will do that - heat is just infra-red wavelengths of light. So if it could be tuned for that frequency, heat would just travel straight through.

originally posted by: Informer1958
I want one. Can you imagine a bank robber just walking into a bank and robbing it, and no one can see him?
This technology would be dangerous in the wrong hands.

You don't need to conceal your entire body to steal stuff. Pickpockets just conceal their hands behind regular objects or use distraction techniques.

a reply to: Frocharocha

They keep pushing towards the optical part of the spectrum but we have a fair way to go yet.

Metamaterial 'cloaks' have frequency limitations based upon how small we can engineer the nano-coatings.

Also, we would have to accommodate a spectrum of frequencies, not a single frequency, so there's that too.

Metamaterials would be effective for RADAR cloaking except we have much simpler, less directional and cheaper alternatives already.

Sorry to rain on the parade.

I would guess that a Vantablack coating (so black that we cannot determine surface profile or texture) would have more immediate and practical military applications.

Very interesting! Once this technology is used by governments it will certainly change warfare.


UC-Berkeley researchers made major progress in developing an invisibility cloak with a tiny metamaterial that can conceal 3D objects.

So is this being used in our modern wars now?

I don't know how true this video is ... but.... if it is true there are systems fielded already.
youtu.be...

originally posted by: 727Sky
I don't know how true this video is ... but.... if it is true there are systems fielded already.
youtu.be...

Thats some good camo I couldnt see him until he turned his camo off! Nice find!

I wonder if its possible to make it self repairing if damaged? Also could it do things like make you look like something your not?

So I imagine this material could be used for clothes and it could make the clothes look like any type you wanted.

originally posted by: 727Sky
I don't know how true this video is ... but.... if it is true there are systems fielded already.
youtu.be...

It's not true at all.It's a combination of a poor quality recording to start with,that has been compressed and transmitted at a reduced frame rate over a limited bandwidth (probably satellite up-link).The running man only appears to be invisible because of how quickly the image refreshes itself,when he slows down to get into the tank he becomes visible again.

originally posted by: stormcell
So if it could be tuned for that frequency, heat would just travel straight through.

Which would heat the air outside of the suit, creating a halo effect...a targeting reticle, if you will, around the suit wearer, as viewed through IR equipment.

The only way to make a human 'invisible' to heat sensing equipment is to trap the heat inside the space. Which is rather useless, as that would kill a human occupant, performing medium duty tasks, in about 30 - 40 minutes.

Humans generate heat. No way around that. If we don't have the ability to exhaust that heat, we die (technically, you would pass out, by by being unconscious, you probably aren't going to be able to 'vent' your suit, so you will die in peace at least). Very simple. The air inside your suit would not take very long to reach its maximum thermal loading capacity. Once that occurs, the clock is ticking. The only way around this is by creating a heat sink that can handle it for the duration required (which would make the suit very bulky as that heat sink would require shielding from the rest of the suit environment, etc), or by exhausting the suit to the open environment...which makes you visible to IR, one way or another.

I would so not use this to go into the women's locker room.

a reply to: Frocharocha

Ya know, I just want it so I can walk downstairs, at night, in the nude, and not worry about the refrigerator illuminating me and my winky for all to see.

So yes, i see some pretty amazing uses in this tech.