Invisibility or not?

when people say invisible to them that means its actually "invisible" to them? only if the sun light does not reflect the objects and heads towards a person's eyes. so in fact its not invisible but just that we cant see it for we depend on sunlight or artificial light to show itself, kind of like walking in the dark room. when u are in a dark room u cant see things around you, does that mean those things are invisible? or its that you just cant see it because of no light. thats my view of what is not invisible.

Depends on what you're trying to make invisible and what the qualifications are for being termed "invisible". The Klingon and Romulan cloaking devices seem pretty much impossible, but you don't have to go that far with the technology to still be useful.

One low-tech way to make an aircraft invisible within the normal light spectrum is to simply fly it at night with the navigation lights off, or fly above the clouds during the daytime.

A more interesting thing to do is to have a high-tech "skin" on the aircraft that can be made to change color, sort of like an LCD computer monitor except that you don't need pixels that small since no one is looking at it up close. Anyway, picture a jet flying at 10,000 feet in daylight with a blue sky. If the jet turned its skin the same blue color as the sky, it would be nearly invisible since it'd blend in with the sky. If its cloudy, turn the skin white instead. If you want to fake people out, you could be flying along in a huge bomber and display a pattern on the underside on its skin that looks like a smaller corporate jet (with simulated blue sky surrounding it for added effect).

I've also heard rumors about Russian plasma stealth technology although I don't know enough of it to say much... I think that's for radar invisibility, active instead of passive way of doing it.

I hear the military is attempting to develop suits that can become "almost" invisible. I can't find the link but it was in a national geographic issue.

Yes the Japanese have developed cloaking suits that work by having a small videocamera capture whatever is happening behind a person, and then displaying it with a special flexible LCD screen / fabric suit worn by the person in the front, so that it looks vaguely like whatever is happening behind you.

I've seen a picture of this, but never in person. Don't know how believable it is. You still have a head to deal with ....

Those suits don't seem very effective. I mean you could just walk into the screen or something. They could probably be only used for long distance surveillance or something. No, the U.S military is trying to develop suits that make the user cloaked like a "Predator" or the ghost in Starcraft.

Originally posted by Lifeadventurer
Those suits don't seem very effective. I mean you could just walk into the screen or something. They could probably be only used for long distance surveillance or something. No, the U.S military is trying to develop suits that make the user cloaked like a "Predator" or the ghost in Starcraft.

Next step would be to make our soldiers into Preadators. 'Any objections to our war Mr.Annan?'

Photon carries information which allows you to perceive objects. Without photon, no visibility. Invisible would simple refer to what cannot be made out specificly by the naked eye with a light source such as air, atomic particles, etc...

[edit on 24-8-2005 by Frosty]

That suit sounds cool, but I have trouble picturing it working very well except under special circumstances. Such as distance. No way is someone going to be standing in the same room with me and I'd not notice an anomaly such as a guy in an LCD suit.



That same technology, but covering the body of an aircraft, was what I was getting at. I guess it could be used elsewhere too, maybe to disguise the tops of buildings from aircraft surveilance or something. Of course, if someone just switches to infrared, it'd stand out like a Christmas tree during a blackout.

I always had a question when I was younger about light and invisibilty. Let's say you take a solid block of stone. No holes or gaps at all. Now, an object gets it's color from light, so I wondered, because there is no light that can get into the stone... is it invisible on the inside? Image an empty room with solid walls on every side and top to bottom... Would the only thing visible be the "walls"?

I now know that having no light inside the block is the same as having all light absorbed, which makes it Black. It is still pretty fun to think about though.

I read recently in one of David Icke's books about a hypnotist that made his subject believe while in trance, that after coming out of hypnosis that he wouldn't see his own daughter. Sure enough after snapping his fingers the man came out of trance and could not see his daughter. However, he could see a pocket-watch the hypnotist was holding directly behind his daughter, and even read the inscription on the watch. So basically she was invisible to her father.

I guess now all we need are weapons that can hypnotize you, tell you they're not there, and snap!!

heh.

Oh and one point I want to make. I believe you need more than just light before you can see anything...that being Shadow. Also important to note is that we actually "see" less than .005% of the energy spectrum.

Peace

[edit on 25-8-2005 by StickyG]

Originally posted by DarkHelmet
I always had a question when I was younger about light and invisibilty. Let's say you take a solid block of stone. No holes or gaps at all. Now, an object gets it's color from light, so I wondered, because there is no light that can get into the stone... is it invisible on the inside? Image an empty room with solid walls on every side and top to bottom... Would the only thing visible be the "walls"?

I now know that having no light inside the block is the same as having all light absorbed, which makes it Black. It is still pretty fun to think about though.

Very similar to Schrodinger's Cat.

Originally posted by DarkHelmet
Now, an object gets it's color from light, so I wondered, because there is no light that can get into the stone... is it invisible on the inside?

That question makes little sense to me, i don't know how to interpret it. I guess the answer is it depends on your notion of invisible. By the way, all objects above zero Kelvin - which is everything - emit black body radiation.

Originally posted by asawa
(...)
Of course, if someone just switches to infrared, it'd stand out like a Christmas tree during a blackout.

Interesting thread, but a christmas tree, just like the rest, does not shine a lot during a blackout...

Effects with low tech invisibility.

Originally posted by grad_student
Yes the Japanese have developed cloaking suits that work by having a small videocamera capture whatever is happening behind a person, and then displaying it with a special flexible LCD screen / fabric suit worn by the person in the front, so that it looks vaguely like whatever is happening behind you.

I've seen a picture of this, but never in person. Don't know how believable it is. You still have a head to deal with ....

Here's a video of an invisibilty cloak developed by the Japanese:
www.stuntcook.com...

Not sure if it's real.

Camouflauge mirror:
www.stuntcook.com...

[edit on 8/28/2005 by Logical_Psycho]

Here is another link, it takes place outside with cars driving by in the background.






projects.star.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp...

^omg hes like a ghost lol, thats pretty kool on a serious note

Due to an electromagnetic field which surrounds invisible personnel, they get invisible and for some reason tiny like an ant. That is what happened to the ship in Philadelphia Experiment. Thy enter the magnetic dimension which has zero gravity. If you want to read more about it then search google for alan yu. His website is the 3rd one google finds. I want to put the link here but the moderator might put the whole thread in the trash bin if I do.

c'mon guys, be serious. Harry potters cloak has it all over the klingons. jeesh. noobs

I thought the ship in the Philadelphia Experiment phase shifted and that resulted in things such as people embedded alive half inside parts of the ship and such. But I may be confusing it with a Star Trek episode where that cloaking device malfunctioned inside an asteroid.

Those cloak videos are pretty cool. I think the first one is what is referenced in the following article:

www.wired.com...

Its "real" but no invisibility suit at all. Just an ordinary raincoat and a projector off in the distance projecting onto him what is picked up by the camera behind him. No worn LCDs (at least in that one).