SINCE reading or watching Harry Potter, fans have been waiting for the day they can own their very own invisibility cloak. Well, a physicist at the University of Rochester, New York is getting very close to making that happen.
Professor John Howell’s first attempt at the optical illusion, captured on video a year and a half ago, is a setup of four lenses that bend light around viewed objects, making them seem invisible while the viewer still sees a consistent, stable background.
A video produced at the time showed a hand behind the apparatuses completely disappear, then emerge on the other side — with a worrisome blank space in between the fingers and the wrist.
Howell’s second go at the project is much bigger: a person, not just an object, can stand behind it and disappear.
Reported by Business Insider last week, the latest version of the “Rochester Cloak†uses four mirrors arranged in nested V-shapes instead of lenses.
In the video below, Howell’s sons Benjamin and Isaac help demonstrate that light bounces around the mirrors. Little Isaac’s torso and legs seem to disappear, while the tiled wall behind him remains clearly visible through the middle of the device.
The best part? The mirrored contraption costs less than $200 to make, and all the materials needed can be found at a local hardware store.
Howell has published his research in academic journals, sure, but he’s given thought to the broader applications of such a tool. He said in 2014 that it could allow a surgeon to “look through his hands to what he is actually operating on.â€
A University of Rochester Newscenter article continued: “The same principles could be applied to a truck to allow drivers to see through blind spots on their vehicles.
Now that’s cool.