Cloaking - It’s not just for Harry Potter anymore
Friday, July 4th, 2008
Those that have seen the Harry Potter movies may remember his magic cloak that enabled him to be invisible from those around him. Sounds a bit fantastical and far-fetched doesn’t it? Well, the future may be closer than you think.
The ability to hide something from sight, is usually accomplished by using what is known as a superlens. This type of lens contains a negative refraction index, the “refraction” part obviously meaning bending. In this case it allows it to bend electromagnetic waves back upon themselves. So, as a result, the object appears “invisible.” Voila! No bulky cloak even needed.
Although superlensing isn’t exactly yet feasible for making something huge like a military warship invisible, there is still promise for more standard large objects. This is being done using copper-based meta-materials to create a type of cloaking cylinder. Work is also being done on the lenses by Graeme Millton, of the University of Utah, who is currently working in mathematical models for the superlenses.
“We’ve seen it numerically—not in practice, but we’ve got a theoretical proof that collections of particles become invisible,” said Milton of their superlens work.
The meta-material cylinder which is being worked on at Duke University is different from the lens at Utah in that it causes microwaves to be bent around itself rather than reflected. Its cylinder has patterns invisible to the naked eye on its surface, which act to redirect the waves striking it, instead of allowing them to bounce off.
The Duke cylinder still needs work because there is still distortion which is visible in microwave images, however there are clearly implications for some real applications. Initiate…Stealth Mode.
Via [DailyTech]
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So here’s a bit of brilliant statistics work for you: The Pew Internet & American Life research project has determined after endless polling and number crunching that 62 percent of American dial-up users have no interest in upgrading their connections to something a bit more peppy. In fact, only 14 percent of them would upgrade if they could. They cite high prices, barrier to entry, and — ooh, is Survivor on? We look at it this way: if you’re not already on broadband with the multitude of options, and you can get broadband (i.e. you’re not stranded out in the wilderness) in one way shape or form, you probably just don’t really care, and we can make fun of you because you’re not reading this post anyway.
