Chinese Scientists Developing Invisibility Cloak

Doesn't sound like this is new technology. More same'ol same'ol. But still interesting. My question: What applications might such developments have beyond the military, and for marketing assistive devices to cat burglars?

One team has already made a cat 'disappear' with a device that has huge military potential.

Mainland scientists are increasingly confident of developing the world's first invisibility cloak, using technology to hide objects from view and make them "disappear".

…A team led by Professor Chen Hongsheng at Zhejiang University released a video last month demonstrating a device that made fish invisible. The same technology also apparently made a cat "disappear". The device was made of a hexagonal array of glass-like panels, which obscure the object from view by bending light around it.

Other mainland teams have made similar breakthroughs.

I'll be honest here: I don't think invisibility cloaks are a good idea. Invisibility introduces an element of impunity that certain sectors of the elite are likely to find...tempting.

reply to post by soficrow


If this is the technology that is just coming out of science exposed to the public, imagine what the military already has, they don't disclose that information for years!

The US military were using iPad's in the 80's (I reckon), a retired US General said the US military is 50 years more advanced than the rest of society, they just don't show it so it doesn't get ripped off. That's why I've always said UFO's = Experimental military crafts.

Bet the U.S. and other select allies already have it... actually, I'm certain they do and they've said as much. Using cameras and screens to show scenery "behind" an object is pretty straightforward.

The uses of invisibility... hmmm. Maybe accounts of "haunting" can be explained by bored servicemen?

But that's ot...

reply to post by soficrow


I could not find the article again because this tech is old, actually Japanese, but anyway at the time their were police organizations and companies supporting them very interested in the tech. Imagine invisible speed traps or stakeout. It would give police tremendous advantage.

Kinda like that drunk driver commercial for real lol.

The Bot

The US was close in 43 with the USS Eldridge
If only they could get the re-materialization down......i mean who wants to re-materialize between the decks and walls

I know, its probably a load of bull but ya never know.

My immediate thought was for the applications - shop lifting, rape, murder whatever, whatever, down to fishing without a license.

I can't help wondering why they are bothering in one respect because there is always a heat signature I doubt can be hidden when it comes to weaponry such as tanks, ships, submarines etc. Also the benefits for crime, were these 'cloaks' to fall into the wrong hands such as bank robbers would be fantastic for the criminal, however literally no-one would be safe on ehte streets or even in their beds anymore. Shame they can't get the funding for a cure for cancer before this weird stuff.

reply to post by AfterInfinity


Yep. That's why there are probably people developing ways to detect anyone in an invisibility cloak at all times. This is a technology that the world does not need. You know, just like the weapons of mass destruction. I bet the US military complex are foaming at the mouth.

Anyone can make a cat disappear. Just start up the vacuum cleaner

This cloaking technology has probably been around for many years. When our government starts declassifying it than you know that it is old hat already. I wonder how many cloaked aircraft are flying around the US today that nobody even sees. They can throw the sound from the engines so you look somewhere else, this helps with our not seeing the little distortion that is left.

reply to post by iRoyalty


I don't think we have to guess. People here were reporting them and hearing them drone overhead quite some time back. "Noises in the sky" sound familiar?

Some of that was hoax. Some of that was something entirely different. Earth sourced? I don't know..neither have any audio techs I've run into. (any new input?) Some of those were droning, repeating patterns and regular in tone. Machine noise...in a 100% and totally empty sky. Over and over again, all over.

Yup... We don't need to guess, IMO ..and the US beat em to it by a few years, even if they'll get the carrots for being the ones the world gives credit to. (Our side would already have FAR FAR too much explaining to do to admit it, even to save face)

iRoyalty
reply to post by soficrow

 

If this is the technology that is just coming out of science exposed to the public, imagine what the military already has, they don't disclose that information for years!

The US military were using iPad's in the 80's (I reckon), a retired US General said the US military is 50 years more advanced than the rest of society, they just don't show it so it doesn't get ripped off. That's why I've always said UFO's = Experimental military crafts.

Yep. It's pretty humiliating to find out your kid took over your house using the same piece of hardware you invented.

Baddogma
Bet the U.S. and other select allies already have it... actually, I'm certain they do and they've said as much. Using cameras and screens to show scenery "behind" an object is pretty straightforward.

This is what you're thinking of.


Yes. That's been around for years.

That is a crude form of invisibility that does nothing more than serve as a projection screen for items behind the perspective of the viewer.


What the Chinese are claiming to have done is actually bending light around an object using metamaterials.

We've done this in the US with microwaves to make things radar invisible but the race has been on to move that into the visible light spectrum.

Have a look at this short TED talk

Baddogma
Bet the U.S. and other select allies already have it... actually, I'm certain they do and they've said as much. Using cameras and screens to show scenery "behind" an object is pretty straightforward.

The uses of invisibility... hmmm. Maybe accounts of "haunting" can be explained by bored servicemen?

But that's ot...

Yup,they have it,but they don`t talk about it.

All this is is mirrors positioned. There is no invisibility field, or cloak, or anything new. David Copperfield made the Empire State Building invisible, I think that trumps a goldfish.

This is interesting, and we wait to see what the Chinese are developing.

Researchers in the US published research into metamaterial earlier this year, which used the creation of multiverses within a cobalt based ferrofluid when affected by a magnetic field. The effect of light propagation through such media is startling. In the paper presented below, the findings are cloaked in theoretical terms that avoid mention of invisibility, but the direction and application of their research is obvious.

arxiv.org...

The article about the Chinese research mentions:

hexagonal array of glass-like panels

It would be intriguing to know more about the internal structure of the (Chinese) array. I have questions regarding the thickness, columnar type, metals and fluids used, plus any magnetic force applied or required. The US research mentioned above, cites a structure 1500nm thick, and cobalt based. The efficiency of the metamaterial depends upon the materials used as well as the thickness, and the field applied. See figure 1 in the University of Maryland research paper to see an example of an array.

For anyone interested, the Joint Quantum Institute at University of Maryland is a wonderful resource.

All up, very interesting but nothing startling, OP.

reply to post by Bandolero


This video doesn't show invisibility tech. It's just a poor camera with lot of mpeg compression. To reduce the required bandwidth the video is separated into blocks and only if >x of them change the picture gets updated there. This way you don't have to transfer all the moving blades of grass for example as they are not important for the video and thus save a lot of bandwidth.

And although Americans think that they are the most advanced country in the world they don't have a high speed satellite connection in every backpack

So you don't see this soldier because he is running to fast and is too small to change enough blocks to get updated. He appears the moment he slowed down to jump on the tank.

So just simple low tech problems and not high tech

Weren't there reports of the U.S. doing this a couple of years back? ...Or have they now fallen behind on this front, too?

reply to post by JadeStar


Cool, Jadestar... thank you. I was aware of the bending of microwaves we've done (not you and I, the royal "we"... just to clarify) but not of the subsequent developments.