Imagine planes invisible — literally — to radar; a sub slipping beneath the waves hidden completely from any attempt at a sonar ping; a tank impervious to infrared sensors.
According to an article in Science Daily, this could be possible — but not in the way we’ve seen in recent attempts.
With planes it’s geometry and materials. With subs its materials, tactics and sound alleviators. With tanks — well, we haven’t gotten there yet. But scientists have successfully tested active cloaking from certain types of radiation, including microwaves.
“It’s a brand new method of cloaking,” Milton adds. “It is two-dimensional, but we believe it can be extended easily to three dimensions, meaning real objects could be cloaked. It’s called active cloaking, which means it uses devices that actively generate electromagnetic fields rather than being composed of ‘metamaterials’ [exotic metallic substances] that passively shield objects from passing electromagnetic waves.”
Milton says his previous research involved “just cloaking clusters of small particles, but now we are able to cloak larger objects.”
For example, radar microwaves have wavelengths of about four inches, so Milton says the study shows it is possible to use the method to cloak from radar something 10 times wider, or 40 inches. That raises hope for cloaking larger objects. So far, the largest object cloaked from microwaves in actual experiments was an inch-wide copper cylinder.
According to the report, this method could be more effective across a wider range of bandwidths. In other words, one active cloaking module could render the object invisible to many sources of emissions. Previous iterations involved materials that cloak against a single bandwidth or wavelength.
“The problem with metamaterials is that their behavior depends strongly on the frequency you are trying to cloak from,” he adds. “So it is difficult to obtain broadband cloaking. Maybe you’d be invisible to red light, but people would see you in blue light.”
Most previous research used interior cloaking, where the cloaking device envelops the cloaked object. Milton says the new method “is the first active, exterior cloaking” technique: cloaking devices emit signals and sit outside the cloaked object.
Be sure to read the scientists’ article in Optics Express journal HERE and watch the demonstration video. Can it cloak me from my boss, I wonder?
Broadband exterior cloaking from Fernando Guevara Vasquez on Vimeo.
(Gouge: MP)
– Christian
Nothing really that new. They have found ways to bend microwaves and block some kinds of reflextions and emissions but it really hasn’t come close to practical yet.
When it comes to tanks, the really issue is not being able to see it with your eyes but being able to see it in a thermal. Infrared does not pass well through most glass so it’s easy to block. However the problem with this is that infrared is caused by heat in a material. So if the glass heats up it will start to emit infrared, or if the air or ground around the tank heats up it will emit infrared (In a specific wavelegnth based on the amount of heat).
As a result of infrared you need something that not only blocks the EM from the tank itself, it also needs to block the air and ground around the tank as well as not heat up itself and emit EM.
Using electromagnetic waves for cloaking, instead of metamaterials?
Now we’re getting into “Philadelphia Experiment” territory.
im assuming that the higher the frequency the harder it would be to cloak. On the issue of heat, Infra red has a shorter wavelength than microwaves, but Longer than visible light. So by the time they get the tech down to make it invisible to our eyes, it would have already made it invisible to infra red. i think
And while i was at it i just thought of a new technology for another app.
first, starting with the highest frequency — gamma>xray>Ultra violet>visible light> Infra red> Microwave>radio wave.….i think i got that .
Now ! if they can make something “invisible” to our eyes , wouldn’t the same technology be applicable to NASA, say making the manned mars ship “invisible” to UV, X, And Gamma radiation. That would solve the problem of protecting astronauts from the dangerous radiation in space, without all that extra lead!
Its exponentially harder and harder as the frequency increases, but cloaks could be used in many areas of science, not just the sweet awesome area of being invisible, jumping from tree to tree, hunting enemies down, and using shoulder mounted plasma cannons and razor claws to maul them. watch out for that triangle laser target lol
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Imagine this for the White House limo or AF1 to be “cloaked” aside AF & Navy jets alone.
Or tankers.
Later GIs can hide with dual cam suits: 1 for natural camo 2. for cloaking.
Radical.
Star Trek Romulan, Klingon tech has arrived.
Or 007s invisible Aston Martin?
It seems to me we have to take into consideration the energy fields created around personnel and the detrimental effect it would have on them. Perhaps it will be confined to unmanned vehicles.
Food for thought.
At some point they will be able to do it to an object large enough as to contain a mammal within the object and the confines of the field. It won’t be a good day for the mammal, I assure you.
As the article makes clear, this technique cannot be used to shield macro objected (likes tanks, planes or people) from anything shorter than microwaves of several centimetres. So no invisiblity in visible, infra-red, or short-wavelength radar.
Great explanation. Between this, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics ads etc. lets make it easy for those who spy on us or need to make a counter to all of this to render it useless.
I’m all for an open society, but screen doors on submarines are counter productive. At least make the bad guys work to have to find this out.
What ever happened to “Need to know.”??
as soon as the DOD or whichever agency comes up with an effective methodology, will the NY or LA Times divulge this technology under headlines on page one or will it be CBS?
Great!! When will the Chinese start building it!!! and when do we start selling it to our enemies.
Interesting theoretical bits, thanks.
Interesting bits, thanks.
Please, can we cloak our politicians. So we don’t have to see them wasting our money,oink-oink.
Politics (poli, we know what that means#
tics #we know what they do)
Are we buying the components from the Chi-coms?? Hell, they make everything-from soup to nuts.
when every electronic signature has a countermeasure the emp or an airburst makes it the most inportant sopening shot in battle and returns the king of the battle field to prominence-the infrantry– cus if you aint inf. …
Instead of trying to make tanks invisible why not use the same money to make tanks themselves obsolete? Hint: we already control the space industry.
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