Back in 2007, we introduced you to the best technologies that could empower humans with the power of invisibility and since then, so many technological advancements have been made. Now, a team of researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology are claiming to have devised a way that will make one object look like any other. An invisibility cloak basically works by steering light around an area, thereby making any object inside that space invisible. It creates the illusion of free space. All this is possible because of metamaterials, a new kind of artificial materials. Now Che Chan and his team believe that these metamaterials can be used for something even better and exciting - for cloaks that create the illusion of the presence of a different object.
This illusion is a two-way process, with the first step involving a way of cloaking objects at a distance. The second step involves a process in which a thing taken at the first step appears to be something else. This is done by distorting the plane waves in a way that will create an illusion that a different object is present.
In case this is not enough to impress you, the researchers think of creating the illusion that a wall has a hole in it, and then use the hole to look through the wall. Now, that would be really astounding.
Just when we start thinking that nothing better can be done in the field of invisibility cloaks, we get to hear of something new and innovative.
Via: TechnologyReview
