Invisibility Cloak Revealed!

[xadoflitan 0]

The cloak that enables optical camouflage to work is made from a special material known as retro-reflective material.
A retro-reflective material is covered with thousands and thousands of small beads. When light strikes one of these beads, the light rays bounce back exactly in the same direction from which they came.

To understand why this is unique, look at how light reflects off of other types of surfaces. A rough surface creates a diffused reflection because the incident (incoming) light rays get scattered in many different directions. A perfectly smooth surface, like that of a mirror, creates what is known as a specular reflection -- a reflection in which incident light rays and reflected light rays form the exact same angle with the mirror surface. In retro-reflection, the glass beads act like prisms, bending the light rays by a process known as refraction. This causes the reflected light rays to travel back along the same path as the incident light rays. The result: An observer situated at the light source receives more of the reflected light and therefore sees a brighter reflection.

Retro-reflective materials are actually quite common. Traffic signs, road markers and bicycle reflectors all take advantage of retro-reflection to be more visible to people driving at night. Movie screens used in most modern commercial theaters also take advantage of this material because it allows for high brilliance under dark conditions. In optical camouflage, the use of retro-reflective material is critical because it can be seen from far away and outside in bright sunlight -- two requirements for the illusion of invisibility.

Source:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/invisibility-cloak3.htm

Xad

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Edited September 17, 2005 by snlildude87 (see edit history)

[Static_Fury 0]

This is cool....i knew they were working on it, but i didnt really know they had it working. The pictures in the article are amazing. you would never know someone was there in the light of dusk....lol cant wait to see the military applications

[crapoartworks 0]

If this technology fell into wrong hands..... we will be doomed.....

[Saint_Michael 3]

to bad only the rich can afford it though and plus i bet it has its flaws on how it works like you can't be standing up in ita nd the fact that you can see through it which is really impossible due to the fact your reflecting the light which means its going to be a bright or a dull spot.

[Cain 0]

That's really neat that they were able to develop something like that. Unfortunately, I suppose it won't be distributed to the public, or am I wrong? If it were then it most certainly might fall into the wrong hands as crapoartworks suggested. But it's always nice to see some sort of progress in any field of technology. It will probably be the base for some other aspect of technology.

[eXtreme 0]

Indeed, if we look at the military improvements of this technology, the possibilities are unlimited. Even for personal and private use.Of course this is also a very dangerous technology, if it does fall in the wrong hands.It's not on it's fullest as we still can see the people, and also it's heat so it's not really a good option for military nowadays. But i'm sure they'll improve it, and i'm getting the sence we'll have to worry a little bit what kind of uses this technology may get.

[dontmaimyourself 0]

wow you could get into some serious trouble with on of those, if you ever got cuaght anyway. I'm all for technological progress but really can there be a lagitimate use for such a technology, I mean if you don't want to be seen doing something there has to be a reason. Though it does have obvious military uses and I personally wouldn't complain if I had on, I think there are a lot of people out there who you really don't want to be invisible.

[ashiezai 0]

wow ... this is so cool ... i never thought that this will happen in near future and it's already here !! erm .. but it's not fully invisible to everyone ... you can still locate it if you look carefully .. but it would be useful in battlefield i think ..,

[xadoflitan 0]

Hello,I thought of this idea about a year or two ago when it was in its early development stages. I drew up schematics and showed them to my uncle and we both thought it was a fantastic idea. Somehow I was able to think of placing a video wall on both sides of a tank, or a layer of miniature cameras that displayed the image on one side of an airplane to another side, rendering in nearly invisible to the naked eye, and same could be applied to a persons uniform. The military could develop invisibility suits and the like. It sucks when you think of something great and find out someone else has already thought of it. After I drew up all the schematics, I went online to find out if anyone else was producing it, and low and behold some jap had already developed something similar to my idea.Dont you hate that?Xad

[dogomchawi 0]

Looks like my leet samurai skills just got even more leetImagine if they coated a submarine or a warship with this stuff? You could dump a sub right off a coastline loaded with nukes and no one would be any wiser.The one major flaw with this stuff is that all you need to do is walk around the person and tadaa! there they areIt only works because there is a camera in front that uses a projector to project an image on the back of the person. not really practical for real world applications.Although i bet they could use this with stationary objects, like buildings or something, but on people i think it would be impossible to use it practically.Cool pictures tho =)

[psychiccyberfreak 0]

That's pretty cool. If they had clear microbead things "networked" with fiber optics to a clear bead on the opposite side, then you could actually use it without the camera thing. Then it would be all pixely, but it would still work, err... mabie? That's cool though. You would be less visible if it was tight against your skin, like tights or something, but that woulden't be too cool. Then again, nobody would see you... arghhh!

[bonniecool 0]

WOW. My friend has an idea about that technology. But its already feasible. I think this technology can be used only for military purposes or special puposes like hunting for Osama. lol! I think this is not for commercial use coz maybe this will be used by peeping toms or robbers or bad guys. Hope this technology wont fall in a wrong hand.Where can i buy that? i just want to sneak on my girlfriend's room. lol! kidding.

[FLaKes 0]

I had posted this a long time ago in the google satellite spots Ufo thread, but no one must have read it. Other than that its really cool technology, dont you think. Just imagine what a sniper could do with one of these.