The article says that it would be possible to cloak an object from Microwaves, Sonar, and Radar as well as visible light.

The theory does make sense, and might be possible to some degree even with existing materials. You could simulate this mono-directionally with fiber optics for example. An Omni-directional cloak would be the holy grail though.

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This is really interesting. I just read about the concept of these metamaterials a few months ago. I guess the materials exhibit certain electromagnetic properties that do not occur in any natural materials.

Being able to cloak an object would be a sort of jaw-dropping moment - something any layperson could appreciate as a 'science fiction' type of achievement.

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Tiger got to hunt, Bird got to fly, Man got to sit and wonder 'Why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep, Bird got to land, Man got to tell himself he understand.
~Bokonon

There is nothing magical about it really...you are just distorting the path of light just like water does. The only difference is that there are fewer variables.

If they could make this work, it would circumvent the only real weaknes I have seen in conventional stealth technology so far: The method of using the absence of radio signals to triangulate a stealthed aircraft. With current methods, there is no way to hide this hole. But with what they are talking about, there would be no percievable hole. It would be a true cloaking device.

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Uh, SS, excuse me for interrupting, and not meaning to change the subject, but don't you think it's time you changed that moth-eaten tagline about how, the, er, uh, muslims misjudged us? LOL

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"Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and the waves, and they obey Him." Luke 8:25

When it stops being true, I'll change it.

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Hell, Barry Manilow's had 5 or 6 top ten hits since that could even POSSIBLY been true, which it never was. Bin Laden played us like a violin and your hero was the band leader. LOL

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"Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and the waves, and they obey Him." Luke 8:25

I don't know...to see it in person would look pretty freaking magical to me. Imagine the effect it might have on a person to experience conflicting sensory input (feeling something you can't see) in this way. The thing about these materials, is that they have completely different refractive properties than any material that occurs in nature or man has previously created. I personally find it to be quite exciting. One thing that seems like it would be a really serious challange for the engineers/scientists working on it, would be to get the light (and other parts of the spectrum) to leave the material at the proper point and at the proper angle. Otherwise, it would just make the space enclosed by the material appear really f-ed up (which would be a cool trick, but not very useful).

I imagine that this would probably be one of the only practical purposes for such technology. To make it work for cloaking an object visually would be impractical, since the slightest smudge or bit of dirt on the surface of the material would ruin the results (just like looking through a dirty lens, or looking into a dirty mirror).

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Tiger got to hunt, Bird got to fly, Man got to sit and wonder 'Why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep, Bird got to land, Man got to tell himself he understand.
~Bokonon

(*)(*)(*)(*) straight.

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A Japanese company has already simulated it. Basically, they showed a guy with a camera on his back facing backwards. The camera connected to a projector that projected the image on his front side. It looked just like he was cloaked...you could barely see anything except his head.

They were calling it a cloaking device, but IMO that is just a crappy approximation of one.

In this case we are talking about objects, not people. Either way, the person inside the hole would not necessarily be cut off from the outside...small sensor devices could penitrate the cloak from the inside, providing sensor data. While this would technically make the cloak imperfect, the penitrating sensor could be so small that the difference would be negligible.

Until I see an actual prototype, I will remain skeptical. The fact that it is being taken seriously by credible mainstream scientists though leads me to believe the claims are legitimate. The theory is sound, the only real question is how well these supposed "exotic materials" really function.

Says who? Imagine the skin of a stealth aircraft wrapped in this stuff. Or a tank.

Even if it only worked at 50% of potential capacity, it would still be very useful.

Anything that lessens visibility, even if it is only from the visible light spectrum, has practical application. Otherwise why do we bother painting camouflage patterns on our hardware at all? This technology, at worst, would augment our existing camouflage significantly. At best it could make it obsolete eventually.

I recall one experimental prototype fighter in the 80s I read about that had lights installed on the underside of the aircraft to control the illumination of it's external surfaces. The idea was to make it match the same luminosity/hue as the sky above it. If successful, it would make the aircrafte way harder to spot from the ground visually. Something I would not mind having on a spy mission.

Even if it is only 95% cloaked visually, that still has value. See my camouflage example above.

The fact that it is not 100% does not ruin it's value IMO.

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The same goes for your signature, catzmeow. I love it because it's true.

That means it can stay.

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