The device more closely resembles a small box than a cloak, butmakes objects behind it appear to completely vanish. Using scienceto bend light around an object, the inventor found a way to concealitems placed behind his device.
Dr. Baile Zhang, an assistant professor of physics at NanyangTechnological University in Singapore, unveiled his invention at aTED conference in Long Beach, Calif, where he explained that heconstructed the invisibility machine “just for fun” after coming upwith the idea in 2010.
But his hobby quickly became known as a technologicalbreakthrough: what the 31-year-old electrical engineer constructedfor ‘fun’ has instilled excitement among those hoping that thetechnology can be used to create a life-sized invisibilitycloak.
“Some guy invented an invisibility cloak… Harry Potter isfinally coming true,” wrote Twitter user @MarissaaRussell.
But creating a life-sized cloak would prove more difficult: Dr.Zhang’s disappearing box was developed by attaching two pieces ofcalcite, a carbonate mineral that can bend light. While it ispossible to create a larger version of his invention, it would notbe feasible to create a garment out of the dense, colorlessmineral.
For now, the scientist is working on creating a larger versionof the invisibility box, one that is “as large as possible”,he told Boing Boing.
Still, the object has become the talk of the conference. AYouTube video shows Zhang placing the ‘cloak’ in front of a Post-itnotepad, causing a section of it to instantly disappear. The boxitself remains near-invisible as it flawlessly conceals the tinyobject.
While Dr. Zhang’s invention has stirred up excitement about theprospect of a life-sized magic trick, he is not the first to workon such an object.
Scientists at London’s Imperial College, Duke University and theUniversity of Texas are working on similar designs. Scientists forthe first time succeeded in “cloaking” an object in 2006, afterwhich the Imperial College researchers laid out their theory forothers to copy. In 2011, a physicist at the University of TexasDallas successfully created a small invention that uses carbonnanotubes to make objects behind it disappear. At Duke, inventorsused metamaterials to create a tiny cylinder that bendselectromagnetic waves and makes objects vanish.
But for those wishing to make themselves disappear in front offriends or family, take note: the illusion only works at a certainangle.
“It’s like the card people in Alice in Wonderland,”Imperial College Professor David Smith told BBC in 2012. “Ifthey turn on their sides you cant see them but they’re obviouslyvisible if you look from the other direction.”
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