Harry Potter-style invisibility cloaks edge closer to reality
The possibility to hide from the outside world has long been a dream of mankind. I’m not talking hiding behind your sofa to avoid door-to-door salesmen, but rather cloaking oneself in order to disappear into thin air. Or at least give the illusion of doing so. And while the technology is nowhere near making that possible, scientists are making progress in the field.
Anyone who has read a Harry Potter book or seen a Harry Potter movie, which is everyone, will know what Harry uses on various occasions to get out of a tight spot or get up to mischief. His invisibility cloak, once donned, allows the young Mr. Potter to seemingly vanish and be able to walk around undetected.
Even before J.K. Rowling started writing about invisibility cloaks, the writers of Star Trek had envisioned a time when whole spacecrafts could be hidden by similar technology. Unfortunately, both the Harry Potter and Star Trek worlds are firmly stuck in the realms of science fiction. But the technology may not be.
According to a new research paper in Science, scientists working in David R. Smith’s lab at Duke University have recently succeeded in creating a new type of cloaking device which has hidden an object from multiple microwave frequencies.
Back in 2006, cloaking devices made using superlenses were proposed but remained theoretical rather than practical. That same year, Smith and his colleagues managed to produce a prototype device which masked an object from one specific microwave frequency. But the project stalled when the authors of a new report suggested that cloaking at multiple frequencies was improbable if not impossible.
Now comes the news that Smith’s team has managed to produce a device which can cloak an object from multiple microwave frequencies. The range is currently between 13 to 16 gigahertz, which is unfortunately way off the 350,000 GHz that constitute the visible spectrum. For something to be completely cloaked, all of those would have to be covered.
The technology to cloak an object or even a human body in its entirety is a long way off, but every piece of equipment used today had to start somewhere. Compare the room-sized computers of yesteryear with the tiny laptop you’re likely using now and it’s not hard to imagine how invisibility cloaks could one day be a reality. I just hope it happens in my lifetime. I’m already imagining what I could use one for…
[Via Ars Technica]
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April 6th, 2011
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May 8th, 2011
Now it’s a long time when i didn’t see harry potter with my family. i think i have to move towards cinema a bit with my family to see a blasting movie like harry potter.