The Philadelphia Experiment revisited

[GomJabbar]

FYI: Scientists Create Cloak of Invisibility

In this first successful experiment, researchers from the United States and England were able to cloak a copper cylinder.

It's like a mirage, where heat causes the bending of light rays and cloaks the road ahead behind an image of the sky.

''We have built an artificial mirage that can hide something from would-be observers in any direction,'' said cloak designer David Schurig, a research associate in Duke University's electrical and computer engineering department.

[dsigma6]

I was reading this story yesterday on comcast, and figured it to be like the last "cloak" i read about; using a setup involving a computer, a projection screen, cameras and some other gadgetry...but this appears to be the real deal. Very encouraging for the future, but this will be used against us in manners that could make us wish it was never invented. Once they have a cloak radar that picks up all sorts of waves, they'll have to get even more creative.

[tfflivemb2]

Hmmmm.....maybe they will invent a Thinkpad cloaking device for unattended Thinkpads!!!

[GomJabbar]

Hmmmm.....maybe they will invent a Thinkpad cloaking device for unattended Thinkpads!!!

Good one!

[Thinkpaddict]

Very interesting. I doubt they will make an effective cloaking device anytime this century, but it is a nice start. About cloaking devices for unattended Thinkpads, beware what you wish for! You wouldn't want to inadvertently sit on your Thinkpad now, would you?

[440roadrunner]

As a former Navy RADAR technician, my specialty was Ground Controlled Approach, and on one unit we had something called "Moving Target Indicator".

This essentially envolved two twin IF amplifier strips, to produce equal and opposite signals, with a delay line in one path equal to the "trip" through one amplifier.

The idea was that you exactly matched the main signal with one which was exactly 180 out of phase. Since the delay on a moving target (the airplane) changes constantly, then supposedly things like rocks, trees, and hills gets eliminated.

(This works vaguely similar to the audio noise reduction systems, I believe Mercedes and others are playing with)

I've wondered from time to time, when this could be applied to light.

[christopher_wolf]

There are a few peoblems with that as a cloaking device;

1.) You won't be able to see out of it, obviously. Biggest problem.

2.) It isn't entirely stealth, given the proper conditions, it will produce an interference pattern; not only that, but you are changing the path of the light as well...So you could also pick up a "difference" map of the light as it takes a tad longer to travel in a path around the object as it would otherwise have gone in a straight line.

3.) If you used a very short wave pulse, you would get what amounts to a "blur" effect upon the reciept of those beams at some other sensor (be they reflected or simply bent very litte, in which case you need to have another sensor at the end). Comparing it to the original wave pattern would easily show the difference and the outline of the cloaked object. This is why the stealth ship "Sea Shadow" couldn't be too stealth as it would show up on a look-down-shoot-down radar system as a giant hole in a bunch of waves, especially it's own wake. It is kind of like a holographic device, except in reverse and you can only get the outlines assuming that the cloaking system is good enough to bend *all* the incident rays of light or other EM such as microwaves (i.e. it would be extremely hard to bend a ray inbound directly *normal* to any given flat surface on the object).

[gearguy]

Very interesting. I doubt they will make an effective cloaking device anytime this century, but it is a nice start. About cloaking devices for unattended Thinkpads, beware what you wish for! You wouldn't want to inadvertently sit on your Thinkpad now, would you?

If they're as durable as most fanboys claim them to be I'm sure they'd be able to take it

[Thinkpaddict]

Very interesting. I doubt they will make an effective cloaking device anytime this century, but it is a nice start. About cloaking devices for unattended Thinkpads, beware what you wish for! You wouldn't want to inadvertently sit on your Thinkpad now, would you?

If they're as durable as most fanboys claim them to be I'm sure they'd be able to take it

I am sure it depends on the person doing the sitting I can think of a few people that might destroy a solid titanium block easily.

[GomJabbar]

I am sure it depends on the person doing the sitting I can think of a few people that might destroy a solid titanium block easily.

How about the "Beast from the East"?

[wswartzendruber]

Very interesting. I doubt they will make an effective cloaking device anytime this century, but it is a nice start. About cloaking devices for unattended Thinkpads, beware what you wish for! You wouldn't want to inadvertently sit on your Thinkpad now, would you?

When my T22 gave up the ghost (bloated charging capacitor), I took the thing and slammed it into a pillar as hard as I could twice. Nothing.