Multidirectional Invisibility Cloak Created By University Of Rochester Researchers

Science fiction is all about invisibility. We love it, and we can’t get enough of it. Whether we’re cloaking massive spaceships, or putting physical cloaks on a single person, invisibility is a cool thing we all wish was available in some form.

Scientists have a reasonable understanding of how to make something invisible to the naked eye by effectively bending light around an object so it is obfuscated from view. This process currently involves either the use of materials that are not readily available to the average consumer, or a setup that is both too elaborate and impractical to actually use. Researchers at the University of Rochester have figured out a significantly more practical setup through the use of inexpensive lenses and some clever math.

With four lenses arranged in exactly the right way, The Rochester cloak creates a space in which anything that exists in between these lenses are hidden from sight. Unlike most other invisibility cloaks currently being worked on, the object being hidden here is able to remain hidden even when looking at it from multiple angles. This lens deployment scales really well, which means with larger lenses you can hide larger objects, but it’s still not a perfect solution. You’re still only hiding things from two directions, which is cool as long as you can manipulate whoever is looking to only look from that direction. Regardless, it is still an incredible step forward and could actually be deployed by just about anyone.

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