Scientists unveil 'invisibility cloak'

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http://news.yahoo.com/york-scientists-unveil-invisibility-cloak-rival-harry-potters-014359862.html

New York scientists unveil 'invisibility cloak' to rival Harry Potter's
By Caurie Putnam

ROCHESTER N.Y. (Reuters) - Watch out Harry Potter, you are not the only wizard with an invisibility cloak.

Scientists at the University of Rochester have discovered a way to hide large objects from sight using inexpensive and readily available lenses, a technology that seems to have sprung from the pages of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter fantasy series.

Cloaking is the process by which an object becomes hidden from view, while everything else around the cloaked object appears undisturbed.

"A lot of people have worked on a lot of different aspects of optical cloaking for years," John Howell, a professor of physics at the upstate New York school, said on Friday.

The so-called Rochester Cloak is not really a tangible cloak at all. Rather the device looks like equipment used by an optometrist. When an object is placed behind the layered lenses it seems to disappear.


A cloaking device using four lenses developed by University of Rochester physics professor John Howe

Previous cloaking methods have been complicated, expensive, and not able to hide objects in three dimensions when viewed at varying angles, they say.

"From what, we know this is the first cloaking device that provides three-dimensional, continuously multidirectional cloaking," said Joseph Choi, a graduate student who helped develop the method at Rochester, which is renowned for its optical research.

In their tests, the researchers have cloaked a hand, a face, and a ruler – making each object appear "invisible" while the image behind the hidden object remains in view. The implications for the discovery are endless, they say.

"I imagine this could be used to cloak a trailer on the back of a semi-truck so the driver can see directly behind him," Choi said. "It can be used for surgery, in the military, in interior design, art."

Howell said the Rochester Cloak, like the fictitious cloak described in the pages of the Harry Potter series, causes no distortion of the background object.

Building the device does not break the bank either. It cost Howell and Choi a little over $1,000 in materials to create it and they believe it can be done even cheaper.

Although a patent is pending, they have released simple instructions on how to create a Rochester Cloak at home for under $100:

http://www.rochester.edu/newscenter...ects-across-continuous-range-of-angles-70592/



(Writing by Frank McGurty; Editing by Sandra Maler)
 

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When I was a kid I bought x-ray glasses from a magazine. They didn't work. I forgot about them once I found my dad's secret stash of Playboy magazines. I'm pretty sure that had an invisibility cloak had been offered in that same stupid magazine I would have sent away for it as well.
 

Elmgrovegnome

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When I was a kid I bought x-ray glasses from a magazine. They didn't work. I forgot about them once I found my dad's secret stash of Playboy magazines. I'm pretty sure that had an invisibility cloak had been offered in that same stupid magazine I would have sent away for it as well.


I bought those Xray specs too. I was so excited that I would be able to see through chicks clothing. Man what a disappointment. I turned to playboys after that also. That is when I met my first love. We never spoke but we had this intimate connection that can only be explained with the words 'true love'. I would gaze into her eyes for minutes and just knew that somewhere out there she was dreaming of being with me. Then after a bit I quickly forgot about her and went back out to play whiffle ball with the guys.
 

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@Elmgrovegnome

Xray specs, Playboys, a healthy imagination, and whiffle ball - I see we have a lot in common from our youth. I had forgotten about the hours of fun me and my buddies spent smacking around that little, white ball with the holes in it.
 

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@Elmgrovegnome

Xray specs, Playboys, a healthy imagination, and whiffle ball - I see we have a lot in common from our youth. I had forgotten about the hours of fun me and my buddies spent smacking around that little, white ball with the holes in it.

Tell me about it. Hours on end playing homerun derby in the backyard. Our neighbor had a dug in pool. We would start with Homerun derby then over to the pool where we played homerun derby with just a big ball, when we were cooled off it was back across the street to our yard and played with the Whiffle ball and bat until we got too hot.....rinse and repeat all summer long for years. Loved it, miss it.

My first Playmate love was Susan Smith. She became a fitness guru. I recall meeting a playmate once. I had her issue and I was so excited that she was going to be at the Monster Truck Jamboree. Wow what a disappointment. She was nowhere near as good as she looked in the books. In fact she more closely resembled my whore cousin Ruby who used to be a stripper.
 

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Tell me about it. Hours on end playing homerun derby in the backyard. Our neighbor had a dug in pool. We would start with Homerun derby then over to the pool where we played homerun derby with just a big ball, when we were cooled off it was back across the street to our yard and played with the Whiffle ball and bat until we got too hot.....rinse and repeat all summer long for years. Loved it, miss it.

My first Playmate love was Susan Smith. She became a fitness guru. I recall meeting a playmate once. I had her issue and I was so excited that she was going to be at the Monster Truck Jamboree. Wow what a disappointment. She was nowhere near as good as she looked in the books. In fact she more closely resembled my whore cousin Ruby who used to be a stripper.

We moved every year until I was 13. My parents bought a house on a dead-end street. All the houses were brand new. It made for a close-knit community of neighbors. There were lots of kids my age and we played football and whiffle ball right out on the street due to the lack of cars. That went on for 3 years until the city put an end to the dead-end and had a street go through. By then it was music and girls so it didn't matter. Good times!
 

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one more thing @Prime Time and @Elmgrovegnome have in common


they both spell wiffle wrong !!!!

Anyway, I never bought the xray specs...wasted my money on the damn Sea Monkeys LOL
 

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one more thing @Prime Time and @Elmgrovegnome have in common
they both spell wiffle wrong !!!!

w0tf0j.jpg
 

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we used to play wiffle ball in a local park on the tennis courts. They were fenced in so there was no doubt if it was foul or a home run. We also played stoop ball, ya know, bounce a tennis ball off the concrete stoop in front of your apartment door. If your opponent caught it, its an out. Ground balls were singles, into the parking lot was a double and over the parking lot, if you caught the little edge of the step just right, was a home run
 

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Do you think kids of today would be terrified of the Playboys of yore? I do.

No, with all the porn readily available at the click of a mouse, they'd probably laugh and think that generation was a bunch of prudes. OTOH looking at Hugh Hefner with his robe and pipe might terrify them.
 

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No, with all the porn readily available at the click of a mouse, they'd probably laugh and think that generation was a bunch of prudes. OTOH looking at Hugh Hefner with his robe and pipe might terrify them.
But the pubes!!