Harry Potter's Invisibility Cloak: New York Scientists Unveil A Cloaking Device [Watch Video]
The invisible cloak has now become a reality as the scientist from the University of Rochester have found a way to hide large objects from sight. The fictional book "Harry Potter" was the first time that such a phenomenon was introduced, and now scientists are turning it into reality.
According to The Guardian, cloaking uses inexpensive and easily available lenses. It is a process through which an object can be hidden from view and everything around the object remains undisturbed.
The object cost the researchers just around $1000 to be made. The researchers believe that it could be made at a cheaper cost as well.
On September 26, John Howell, a professor of physics at a school in New York, explained that for many years, a number of people had tried to work on different aspects of optical cloaking. He said that the cloak that was described in the books of the famous "Harry Potter" series by J.K. Rowling was similar to that of the Rochester Cloak and caused no distortion to the background object.
The new cloak by the Rochester scientists looks like an equipment that an optometrist uses and isn't a tangible one. Behind layered lenses, the object seemed to disappear. The scientists said that the methods that have been used for cloaking previously had been complicated and expensive as well as was not able to hide the objects when viewed through different angles.
A graduate student, Joseph Choi, helped develop the new cloaking device at the University of Rochester, which is well known for its optical research. He said that from their knowledge, this was the first cloaking device that provided three-dimensional cloaking.
The researchers performed tests with the cloak and have managed to cloak a hand, a face and a ruler. They managed to make each object appear invisible while only thing that remains in view is that of the image behind the object.
A patent for the product is pending but despite that, the University of Rochester, through its YouTube channel, has released a video that shows how to make the Rochester Cloak at one's home with less than
Video Source: YouTube/ UniversityRochester