How Does Cloaking Work in the Real World?

If you're a fan of Harry Potter or Star Trek, you probably already know what cloaking devices do. In the world of science fiction, they can make things disappear, just like magic. But how does cloaking work in the real world?

It can often be a very complicated setup that involves a lot of math and specialized optics, but researchers at the University of Rochester have been working on simplifying that approach.

[crlguitar]

It still doesn't explain how the Klingons were able to cloak their

[LouisEmery]

That's a fun demonstration of optical element matching techniques. It's nice that the University has promoted this with the term "cloaking" in order to raise interest in science and math to the general public. Scientists don't do enough of this.

[ybmagpye]

So... all you have to do is get someone to look through a lens and they can't see you. Uh... cool optics, but how is that the equivalent of a cloak? Oh well, it's progress.

[irate_prostate]

How well does this work with a different background? It is a beginning. The trick is to use the basic principle behind this and create the illusion with out the frames- perhaps light generated "screens" with the correct frequencies of light.

[shintashi]

does anyone remember those plastic magnifiers that used to come in cereal boxes? they were lenses but super thin and could be shaped like a rectangle or square but there were concentric circles which distorted the light like a magnifying lens. I'm sure something very large and flexible and portable could be made, similar to the polarized 3D glasses of movie theaters, that is mass produced, and then used as a tarp or something similar.

[azsunnin]

I happen to have an eye disease that causes there to be a large grey spot in my right eye where my focal point would be and I have peripheral vision in that eye only. I would really like to know if this type of lens could "cloak" the spot and allow me to look around it while giving a full sight picture. I could only hope. 

[stormshadow]

The lenses would have to be large in order to hide, say, a sensor suite, in the bushes. Maybe the implication is utilizing a multi-lense system on an array of cameras, which then projects the backend to a screen on the front. Consider that Samsung invented bendable flat screens. Also consider what you would want to hide... a Flir Ranger family infrared sensor suite; those are fairly large. A cheaper solution is using a paper towel tube over one eye, covering up the other... if you could just convince the enemy ;)

[EvilNeil]

meh not really that great, anything that passes through the center as seen completely blocks out the view kinda pointless

[tabithiamoore]

WoW that is really awesome:) What song is this??

[RyanJasonProductions]

Isn't that just the focal point? Maybe I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure it is.

[intervalkid]

Though brilliant and of great ingenuity and practical application it is not actually a cloak.   A cloak makes things invisible for outside viewers and unless I'm mistaken this makes things invisible for those looking through the lenses only.   This however is more useful for peaceful non-sneaky applications than an actual invisibility cloak.   Hats off for a brilliant invention!

[cloud]

what about the one japanese created? was it real or fake?

[quietthomas]

Okay, now let's see it with something OTHER THAN graph paper behind it - I suspect that would reveal that everything through the lens is upside down and back to front.

[gregoryagogo]

Really sticking us the 666 hand sign at 0:43!  

[krg]

Magic trick. That's all this will ever be. True cloaking will have screens and camera's (probably a camera for each pixel) as flexible as the finest silk and be just as thin and will project the images from the opposite side of the object taking light, shading and color into account.

[quickie]

what if the lenses were really big and somehow attached to the object being concealed?   Then the object would be constantly "cloaked" wherever it moved.  I'm sure within time this device will evolve into more something more practical

[sepirocth]

I strongly believe he will be able to patent this, after all apple was able to patent a button, round corners on a rectangle, among other things that did not require a scientific breakthrough

[jmyersv]

I wouldn't consider that exactly cloaking, but its demonstrating the principle on the way to cloaking.     Ok many people have envisioned a fiber optic garment that lets the light pass through but those have all been complicated, and using electricity and things.   .. Now how about possibly a sheet of fiber optic nano tubes, and in every tube (this system appears to use 4 lenses right?  have all 4 lenses on a microscopic scale inside.  

[Insandom]

Cool stuff, good job scientists. :D / You guys in the comments sure like to criticize something you yourselves couldn't do. Not to generalize you all into one group though, but so far you're all talking as if you are well established voices on the subject. This is a simple view on cloaking, they have a whole lot of room to mess around and experiment.

[InventPeace]

Why not use thousands of small lenses connected by fiber optic wire so that a "cloak" could be formed; each end of one fibre optic tube goes around the body (or cloak) and comes out the other side exactly 180 deg opposed... in this way light is seen from what is behind the object to the view... (prob need light amplifiers in there too, also on small scale, , , yeah $$$$ but eventually it could go down in price with mass production and efficiency improvements).  jsd  (make sure I get my 10% )