Early 'Invisibility Cloak' Could Be 18 Months Away

[Robb]

WASHINGTON -- Imagine an invisibility cloak that works just like the one Harry Potter inherited from his father.

Researchers in England and the United States think they know how to do that. They are laying out the blueprint and calling for help in developing the exotic materials needed to build a cloak.

(snip)

Such a cloak does not exist, but early versions that could mask microwaves and other forms of electromagnetic radiation could be as close as 18 months away, Pendry said. He said the study was "an invitation to come and play with these new ideas."

"We will have a cloak after not too long," he said.

The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency supported the research, given the obvious military applications of such stealthy technology.

(more)

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

1. but when are they going to build a time machine?

that's what i want to know

[villager]

2. in these books, DARPA is already working on it:

http://www.dangerboy.com/

[HysteryDiagnosis]

12. Will shrub and blair be able to go back and un-shock and awe

the innocent collateral damages????? THOUSANDS OF THEM AND MORE EACH DAY!!!!!!!

[villager]

15. hence the yearning for time travel...

n/t

[pinerow]

26. Where are the flying cars??...we were promised flying cars.in

the 21st century...:wtf:

[dysfunctional press]

35. hopefully it'll NEVER happen on a wide scale-

so many people out there have enough trouble trying to operate in TWO dimensions, i'd hate to think how screwed up things would get when you added a third.

[Hissyspit]

3. William Shatner invented everything!

[sweetheart]

9. he did!

How did you know!

!

The invisible budget was invented on the Enterprise by Dr. Spock
and not in washington DC by a bunch of thieves.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

11. Well.... he did invent the zero gravity make out scene..... n/t

[u4ic]

4. And that's how the Bush administration

will make their exit...

[DRoseDARs]

7. ...except they'll walk right into a locked door. Again.

eom

[xchrom]

5. i want one!

nfl locker rooms would never be the same!

[davidinalameda]

19. tramp-is there room for two under it?

:rofl:

[xchrom]

24. we could pop out and yell surpise?

:rofl:

[davidinalameda]

37. good idea

:rofl:

[anotherdrew]

6. and it'll take less time that that for them to use it to kill someone n/t

[3waygeek]

8. What makes you think they haven't

done it already? :tinfoilhat:

[tanyev]

27. Oh, they can already do that quite easily.

An invisibility cloak would make it much easier to spy on political enemies and gather information you can use to blackmail.

[Warren Stupidity]

10. Does anyone actually believe this crap? eom.

[tatertop]

18. I hope not

[Righteous9]

13. Same company must tailor Bush's suits...

[Bonescrat]

14. The Japanese have already done this (albeit imperfect)...

See the link.

http://projects.star.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/projects/MEDIA/xv/oc.html

[KamaAina]

16. Great. Now Voldemort will have one, too.

The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency supported the research, given the obvious military applications of such stealthy technology.

:puke:

[lindisfarne]

17. A good occlumens might still be able to figure out where someone

was. Dumbledore could "see" right through the cloak.

[daleo]

20. Well, Bush made the Constitution disappear

And peoples' voting rights vanished too. So, he's pretty good at making things invisible.

[karlrschneider]

21. I want a holocaust cloak!

...;-)

[drhilarius]

22. Well, the Romulans and Klingons will be pissed. nt

[sugapablo]

25. Yeah! This would break an international treaty!

The Federation agreed sixty years ago in the Treaty of Algeron never to develop cloaking technology.

[MilesColtrane]

32. Who said the US=Federation....?

It's looking more like the Romulan Empire right now.
I've heard that Emperor Bush has given the go ahead for NASA to begin painting Birds of Prey on all their ships.

[tuvor]

23. Invisibility will blind you.

If your retina's not visible, light won't bounce off it.

[qazplm]

29. your retina would be visible

to anyone under the cloak.

if you had a small light source inside the cloak you could see just fine.

[Shadowen]

31. Aye.

Like in the Heir to the Empire trilogy. The same effect that blocks light from going out also blocks it going in.

Still, a clever person could develop uses for such a thing.

[daleo]

36. That's a good point

So, even in the unlikely event this development is true, it wouldn't actually be useful for surveillance (except to hide something in plain sight).

[soothsayer]

28. They already exist! Look around. The fact that you don't see

them PROVES it!

[Shadowen]

30. Cool.

Now invent sound-muffling materials and this won't just be a big waste of time.

[shadowknows69]

33. OK tell me UFOs haven't crashed

We can barely build decent automobiles anymore but were going to have invisibility cloaks? I should say the DOD is going to have I-cloaks.

[Ezlivin]

34. Trials are not going that smoothly....

[Guaranteed]

38. Hmmm...but how will they see it? nt