The invisible man will no longer only be seen in sci-fi movie. As The US scientists have developed a special cloak which makes the wearer almost 100% invisible.
The research team is from Berkley, led by Xiang Zhang, has developed the special material called metamaterials, which is a composite of couple of materials such as ceramic, Teflon and fiber. The material is said to be able to scatter visible lights, or to bend light rays around a covered 3D object, making the covered 3D object nearly invisible to the human eyes.
The concept is kind of straightforward, if you have little physics knowledge. Human eyes can see an object is because it reflects part of the light rays that shine on it. But the “invisible cloak” made with metamaterials, is said to scatter all light rays without reflecting any single ray. Therefore, it’ll appear invisible to the human eyes.
This is a major breakthrough, as it’s the first time that the scientists have achieved it over 3D objects. This is definitely a great news for those secret agents, making it very much easier to sneak into a highly private area. There will be some good uses with this invisible cloak, such as used by the army for carrying out high level undercover reconnaissance mission at the enemy territories. Of course, when it falls into the wrong hands, then it’ll bring lots of trouble to the society.
At the moment the cloak is still at the prototype stage, which is quite close to 100% but still needs more efforts to make it to work exactly at 100% to scatter all lights.
via [gizmowatch]
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