FEBRUARY 24, 2011
The race to make invisibility technology is on. Invisibility, mostly known as a plot device in fiction, may soon become a reality and through some interesting implementations, could actually serve as a useful feature in product design.
Japanese researchers are utilizing advanced camera and projection technology to make obstacles appear invisible. By simply projecting the background image onto a highly reflective surface, the researches can effectively turn something invisible. The researchers have already created a coat that utilizes this technology, but a more useful application has been their prototype car door and dashboard that reveals the road behind the surfaces. This would help with blind spots, hidden cyclists, markings on the road and generally improve the driver’s ability to react to the environment. This isn’t so much a new technology as it is a brilliant implementation of existing video capabilities, but it certainly qualifies as a contender on the quest for invisibility.
The second, and much more complicated, endeavor is the project by scientists at Duke University that can effectively make objects invisible to microwaves. The technology can be expanded to work for infrared and visible light, which the team hopes to achieve in about six months. They have created a mechanism for making shapes appear invisible to microwaves by masking the contours of an object. The development could also lead to better wireless communications (especially indoors) by steering the signals to their receivers. We’ll stay posted on these developments and let you know when we can finally break out the stealth camouflage en masse. The defense department may also be interested in this technology to cloak large vehicles like tanks or ships. The following video from the New Scientist explains further
