How to Become Invisible 336
mdm42 writes "Looks like a theoretical physicist at St. Andrews University in Scotland believes that invisibility may be possible. And its not going to be a potion or a cloak, but will come in the form of a device. " Let's just hope that when the invisible woman arrives, she's played more convincingly than Jessica Alba.
Invisibility already exists on /. (Score:5, Funny)
A story on invisibility, and
How not to be seen. (Score:5, Funny)
In the distance Mr Bradshaw stands up. There is a loud gunshot as Mr Bradshaw is shot in the stomach. He crumples to the ground
This demonstrates the value of not being seen.
Re:How not to be seen. (Score:2)
Re:How not to be seen. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:How not to be seen. (Score:3, Informative)
I thought you just had to say (Score:4, Funny)
Whippersnappers: Look it up.
That's a common misconception... (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, speaking isn't required. The actual technique is waving your hands in front of you and then snap your fingers.
Of course, it doesn't work when you're wet.
Re:I thought you just had to say (Score:2)
(I could never catch the last part of that, though, as Burt was invisible during that part of the gesture)
Bending light is certainly possible (Score:4, Insightful)
But seriously, all the new light bending materials I've been reading about look neat, but seem to be focused on certain wavelengths. Broad spectrum invisibility will likely be pretty tough.
But what about inside? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:But what about inside? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:But what about inside? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:But what about inside? (Score:2)
Re:But what about inside? (Score:2)
sure you'd still have a "detectable" presence in the area used to see, however it would be a very small area, and even it would only be a slight distortion, the o
Re:Bending light is certainly possible (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Bending light is certainly possible (Score:2)
Exactly were I was going! If she had the mass to curve light she might not be visible but you would feel her presence. Assuming it would last long enough to feel it. The painful crushing sensation that is. Talking about not seeing the train coming.
Re:Bending light is certainly possible (Score:2)
The suit has a device in front of your eyes that captures the light and simultaneously displays it to your eyes AND displays a copy on the back of your head.
Re:Bending light is certainly possible (Score:2)
talking to women (Score:5, Funny)
Re:talking to women (Score:3, Funny)
Side effect: loss of blood and money.
Re:talking to women (Score:5, Funny)
"You mean there's more to invisibility than meets the eye?"
But luckily I was wrong.
Re:talking to women (Score:4, Informative)
No, that's the Transformers.
Thank you folks, I'll be here all week.
-Eric
Finally... (Score:5, Funny)
true invisibility is impossible (Score:2, Informative)
Re:true invisibility is impossible (Score:5, Insightful)
true invisibility is impossible
Not really. It can be done and probably will be done some day. It is just not as simple or work the same way bad sci-fi shows portray it.
and even if it was possible, we'd be blind while we were invisible.
Yes, but this is a solvable problem as well. Bend visible wavelengths of light around, but not infrared and wear infrared goggles. Or bend light around everywhere except a pinhole too small to be visible, but which is used to generate a view outside the cloak like a pinhole camera does. Or transmit an image from a small device outside the cloak. The hard part is redirecting the light properly. Once that is solved, the rest is a lesser problem.
Re:true invisibility is impossible (Score:2)
Infrared visibility still a problem (Score:5, Insightful)
"Invisibility" as defined as not providing a reflected-light image is the least significant part of the problem without also providing some way of eliminating other physical detection. It might be useful if you were cloaking a sealed, inanimate object that had no EMF or other signatures detectable, but I'm not sure it'd be cost effective against other low-tech methods for simply hiding something or otherwise camouflaging it.
Re:true invisibility is impossible (Score:2)
Re:true invisibility is impossible (Score:5, Informative)
In an urban setting, though, you'd be more likely to notice the distortion around a 95% invisible object if it was passing between you and a straight line, like the edge of a building, or making one portion of the car across the street appear a different color.
But combined with current stealth techniques (sticking to shadows, stay in buildings, etc.) this would be a tremendous advantage to the equipped force. Probably not quite as much as, say, power armor [wikipedia.org], but DARPA's got money going into that, too.
Really invisible? (Score:5, Funny)
Sure, who would find a human-sized-walking-lightbulb suspicious?
Re:Really invisible? (Score:2, Funny)
Shit, that means Metal Gear Solid taught me NOTHING...
Predator had it more apt... (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't know how significant it would be, but that could result in a slight disjointed projection of the area behind you if you were made 'invisible' with such a device, most observable when one moves.
Thus, the more apt movie reference would be Predator.
Ryan Fenton
Re:Predator had it more apt... (Score:2)
Perhaps this is a problem with the rock in water analogy but I wonder if it applies to bending light as well. When water flows around a rock, turbulance is created that can be seen from all sides even if you can't see the rock. The further you get from the rock, the less visible the turbulance is. This is true even if the viewer is at or below the plane of the water/air interface. Would a similar principle apply here as well, I wonder?
Re:Predator had it more apt... (Score:2)
Re:Predator had it more apt... (Score:5, Funny)
Clearly, you are new [slashdot.org] to Slashdot.
Re:Predator had it more apt... (Score:2)
unrequited humour (Score:5, Funny)
I'm surprised (Score:2)
Mystery Men (Score:2)
Heck, most of
python... (Score:2, Funny)
Just don't hide behind a single shrub in the middle of a field...
No peeping toms though... (Score:2)
So, there go the recreational usages of such technology...
MadCow.
Re:No peeping toms though... (Score:2)
Philadelphia Experiment? (Score:5, Funny)
And this experiment will be done with a ship in Philadelphia?
Re:Philadelphia Experiment? (Score:3, Interesting)
Practical Invisibility (Score:2)
Is it just me... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Is it just me... (Score:2)
An invisibility device might make the actual heist easier through making yourself invisible to say, a surveillance camera, but other clues would still be there. Criminals were caught and put in jail long before security cameras were invented.
Re:Is it just me... (Score:2)
Metamaterials affect electromagnetic waves because they affect electromagnetic wave propagation.
Sonar waves are not carried by photons, they are carried by air molecules.
The only way you can make yourself invisible to sonar is by not being there at all. If you can touch it, sonar can find it, and it's simple as that.
So All I Gotta Do... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So All I Gotta Do... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:So All I Gotta Do... (Score:2)
Sort of. Except carrying it is going to give you a completely new definition of "Atomic Wedgie".
That and the fact that the event-horizon will be a dead giveaway.
Re:So All I Gotta Do... (Score:2)
Yes, yes it does.
The only drawback is you always have a big grin on your face and walk like you shat yourself.
Oblig. Soviet Russia (Score:2)
It wouldn't be long before black hole carries you!
Turbulence? (Score:3, Insightful)
I wonder if this is BadAnalogyGuy [slashdot.org] in disguise? :)
A most people will have actually seen water flowing around a rock in a creek or a stream will attest, the water doesn't just leave as if nothing was there: there's all sorts of turbulence, especially leaving visibile waves on the surface and even a trail of bubbles if there is sufficient flow to cause aeration.
Re:Turbulence? (Score:2, Insightful)
I think I've heard it before (Score:2)
For decades, many science fiction fans around the world have believed invisibility *may* be possible.
And in further news... (Score:2)
Scientist thinks arresting the aging process may be possible in future...
Scientist thinks space colonies may be possible in future...
Scientist thinks flying cars may be possible in future...
etc. etc. etc.
Somebody Else's problem (Score:5, Funny)
English please! (Score:2)
Someone needs remedial English to learn the difference between 'then' and 'than'. While one can understand the sentence, it is incorrectly structured. Better, it would read, "Let's just hope that when the invisible woman arrives, she's portrayed more convincingly at that time than by Jessica Alba." Or, "Jessica Alba is hot and should never be invisible."
In Case Your Browser Can't Render the Site... (Score:3, Informative)
By Patricia Reaney
LONDON (Reuters) - It's unlikely to occur by swallowing a pill or donning a special cloak, but invisibility could be possible in the not too distant future, according to research published on Monday.
Harry Potter accomplished it with his magic cloak. H.G. Wells' Invisible Man swallowed a substance that made him transparent.
But Dr Ulf Leonhardt, a theoretical physicist at St Andrews University in Scotland, believes the most plausible example is the Invisible Woman, one of the Marvel Comics superheroes in the "Fantastic Four".
"She guides light around her using a force field in this cartoon. This is what could be done in practice," Leonhardt told Reuters in an interview. "That comes closest to what engineers will probably be able to do in the future."
Invisibility is an optical illusion that the object or person is not there. Leonhardt uses the example of water circling around a stone. The water flows in, swirls around the stone and then leaves as if nothing was there.
"If you replace the water with light then you would not see that there was something present because the light is guided around the person or object. You would see the light coming from the scenery behind as if there was nothing in front," he said.
In the research published in the New Journal of Physics, Leonhardt described the physics of theoretical devices that could create invisibility. It is a follow-up paper to an earlier study published in the journal Science.
"What the Invisible Woman does is curve space around herself to bend light. What these devices would do is to mimic that curved space," he said.
play? (Score:2)
Lets just hope that when there actually IS an invisible woman, she won't have to 'play' anything...
Re: Jessica Alba (Score:4, Funny)
Invisibility (Score:5, Funny)
Invisibility is Easy. (Score:4, Funny)
Acting Skills (Score:2)
It' a pretty sad statement to say that an actress can't even decently play an INVISIBLE role.
Terran Wraith (Score:2)
1. Build a Starport.
2. Build a connecting Control Tower.
3. Upgrade, add cloaking field for your wraiths.
(Bonus: To stay invisible longer, build an Apollo reactor, gives you +50 energy.)
Simple: (Score:2)
Five steps for becoming invisible (Score:2)
2) Check Slashdot multiple times daily.
3) Slowly become invisible to the outsi...
Invisible and blind (Score:2)
Invisible like Predator (Score:2)
A Nightmare in the Making -- end of M.A.D. (Score:5, Insightful)
Mutual Assured Destruction has kept the nuclear powers-that-be in check for 60 years. A country that feels it has the technology to intercept incoming missles, and massively surprise its enemy (using stealth as discussed in this article), ... well that country might just decide it has to strike first, before its enemy achieves similar capabilities and makes the same judgement call.
Think about it. Your military advisers tell you that 1) you can intercept incoming missles (even from subs), and 2) deliver missles without being detected. In essence, they are saying you could launch a preemptive nuclear strike with mostly political, not military, consequences.
You are also advised that in a few years your enemy will have sufficient tecnology to do the same.
Suddenly M.A.D. is out the window, and replaced with a "whomever strikes first wins" scenario.
Put three guys in a room (U.S., China, Russia) blindfolded. Tell them the first that leaves the room will live, and the rest will die, but if they all stay put, they will all live. Then tell them there is unlimited power for the first one out the door. What do you think will happen?
I can be invisible /now/ by that definition (Score:2)
This article is about blocking EM from sensitive equipment. Stop shouting "invisible!"
Origin of 'may' (Score:2)
They use them on vehicles already (Score:3, Interesting)
Invisiblity in groups would suck (Score:3, Interesting)
Individual invisibility breaks these cooperative behaviors. If there's an opening in a crowd, someone will probably try and use it. Soldiers/tanks will shoot at targets without respect for their invisible buddy in the line of fire. How many times have you changed course in a crowd and bumped into someone because you thought that direction was clear? An invisible person would have to be continuously watching everyone around him to dodge out of their way.
Re:Jessica Alba (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Jessica Alba (Score:5, Funny)
I can think of a few scenerios involving me, Jessica Alba and an invisibilty device, but none involve making *her* invisible.
Re:Jessica Alba (Score:5, Funny)
Uh-oh. Do I detect the beginnings of a new "Natalie Portman"
Re:Jessica Alba (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Jessica Alba (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Jessica Alba (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Jessica Alba (Score:2)
Re:Jessica Alba (Score:5, Funny)
If you want subtle acting and believable characterization, you can go watch Meryl Streep. In the meantime, I'll be watching Alba with the sound off.
Re:Jessica Alba (Score:2)
Put a plastic bag over your keyboard.
Re:Doesn't work (Score:5, Informative)
As any HHGTTG fan can tell you... (Score:5, Funny)
Wheel of cheese (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Ha! (Score:2)
Re:Doesn't work (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Doesn't work (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Doesn't work (Score:3, Insightful)
Come on lad, Birds of Prey cannot fire when they are cloaked. That's Trek 101, basically.
Re:Great (Score:2)
Re:Light doesn't bend? (Score:2)
Think black holes and massive objects (like the Sun and Earth). They bend light. So, yes, the way to do that is to generate some carefully-controlled gravity distortion field that pulled light from every (important) side of the invisible person, generated some copy of some part of that light (so the invisible person could see something) and deflected, bending, the otherwise "straight" lightrays so they come across as if nothing was there.
The main problem: we can't c
Re:Light doesn't bend? (Score:2)
Re:Grammar Police (Score:2)
I'm OK with this...
Re:Grammar Police (Score:2)
Re:Grammar Police (Score:2)
Re:Black Ops Specialists Rejoice (Score:2)
Re:Let's hope... (Score:2)
Re:But seriously... (Score:2)
I'm not a physicist, but I started as one in college. The wikipedia article on Metamaterials [wikipedia.org] suggest that they have highly unusual properties in terms of electromagnetic wave propagation.
The layman's example they give is not bad. I'll quote it here:
Metamaterials with negative N have numerous startling properties:
1. Snell's law (N1sin?1 = N2sin?2) still applies, but rays refract on the same side of the normal on entering the material.
2. The Doppler shift is reversed (that is, a light source m