Invisibility Cloak Inches Closer To Reality With The
Carpet Cloak

post from Ubergizmo on 19 March 2010 08:30:55 AM. © Ubergizmo

Invisibility Cloak Inches Closer To Reality With The Carpet Cloak

Mankind has been fascinated by the concept of an invisibility cloak long before Harry Potter came along, but regardless of where our love for invisibility cloaks came from, we’re still waiting to get our hands on one. Now some smart scientists are busy working to come up with another variant of the invisibility cloak, and the good news it, it can hide things in 3D. Previously invisibility cloaks only hid things when viewed directly, but the moment you moved to the side, it was very obvious that something was amiss. With the “Carpet Cloak”, the trick is to change the speed and direction in which light travels through the material, meaning changing the material’s refractive index. This is achieved by using a polymer crystal made up of tiny rods, which can change the ratio of air to polymer by changing the thickness of the rods. Sure, it sounds like a lot of hokey, but we’re happy to use whatever method they want, as long as we get our invisibility cloak gift-wrapped nicely under our Christmas tree this December.

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