[quote]It's no illusion: Science has found a way to make not just objects but entire events disappear, experts say.
According to new research by British physicists, it's theoretically possible to create a material that can hide an entire bank heist from human eyes and surveillance cameras.
"The concepts are basically quite simple," said Paul Kinsler, a physicist at Imperial College London, who created the idea with colleagues Martin McCall and Alberto Favaro.
Unlike invisibility cloaks—some of which have been made to work at very small scales—the event cloak would do more than bend light around an object.
(Also see "Acoustic 'Invisibility' Cloaks Possible, Study Says.")
Instead this cloak would use special materials filled with metallic arrays designed to adjust the speed of light passing through.
In theory, the cloak would slow down light coming into the robbery scene while the safecracker is at work. When the robbery is complete, the process would be reversed, with the slowed light now racing to catch back up.
If the "before" and "after" visions are seamlessly stitched together, there should be no visible trace that anything untoward has happened. One second there's a closed safe, and the next second the safe has been emptied.
Event Cloak "Fun" but Challenging
The concept of an event cloak "is definitely an interesting idea and great fun," said invisibility researcher Ulf Leonhardt, a physicist at the University of St. Andrews in the U.K. who wasn't part of the study team.
Steve Cummer, a cloaking specialist at Duke University, calls the concept "interesting and exciting," but he thinks that actually making such a cloak would be "really, really challenging."
"All of the material parameters need to be time-varying in a very specific way," Cummer said by email.
Currently, nobody knows how to do that except in fiber optics, in which the speed of a signal can be varied by a few percent by changing the intensity of the light. (Related: "Nobel Prize in Physics Goes to 'Masters of Light.'")
"You can use an intense control beam to slow a signal down," Kinsler said. In that way, an event occurring inside a fiber optic cable—such as an electrical signal moving from "on" to "off"—could be hidden from view.
"You would see the fiber, but some event occurring in the fiber could be cloaked," he said. Such a proof of concept, he added, could be possible within a few years.
(Related: "Long-Distance Quantum Message May Advance Code Making, Code Breaking.")
Powerful Laser Key to Cloaking?
There are still a few hitches to address, though, before attempting such an experiment, according to the University of St. Andrews's Leonhardt.
For instance, being able to cloak an event lasting more than a few femtoseconds—one-millionth of a nanosecond—would require light from an immensely powerful laser, he said.
"The experiment is not entirely impossible, but it is at the limit of what one can do with present technology in an ordinary university laboratory," Leonhardt said.
(Related: "Fusion Power a Step Closer After Giant Laser Blast.")
Study co-author Kinsler agrees that the fiber optics experiment is a technological stretch, but he counters that the problem can be eliminated by using a miles-long cable, as is routinely done in telecommunications.
"You can reduce the required power by using a longer fiber," he said. That's because the duration of the event you can hide depends on how long you can delay the light. A longer cable would allow you to get a longer delay from the same percentage slowdown, which would take less power.
Still, it may be a long while before police have anything to worry about—the materials needed for speeding and slowing light precisely enough for a bank heist have yet to be invented.[/quote]
Source: [url]http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/07/110711-invisibility-cloak-events-space-time-bank-robbery-science/[/url]
Hope I'm not late. (first time posting something in Sensationalist Headlines :D)
Sweet crackers that's awesome
[quote]"The concepts are basically quite simple," said Paul Kinsler[/quote]
lol yea ok buddy
This is purely theoretical stuff i.e it's the result of some equations pointing towards a certain answer (it's how black holes were found). Don't expect to see any practical use of this.
This technology will prove interesting, in all hands.
I need this for when I fap in public.
No more modified trenchcoat required.
[QUOTE=demoguy08;31097097]This is purely theoretical stuff i.e it's the result of some equations pointing towards a certain answer (it's how black holes were found). Don't expect to see any practical use of this.[/QUOTE]
For a while, no one ever expected to see a black hole because they were purely theoretical and some equations pointed towards their possible existence. Give the technology a hundred years.
[QUOTE]In theory, the cloak would slow down light coming into the robbery scene while the safecracker is at work. When the robbery is complete, the process would be reversed, with the slowed light now racing to catch back up.
If the "before" and "after" visions are seamlessly stitched together, there should be no visible trace that anything untoward has happened. One second there's a closed safe, and the next second the safe has been emptied.[/QUOTE]
A local slowdown of the speed of light in the form of a cloak sounds just a touch more expensive than anything any safe contains.
Unless the safe contains two cloaks.
If it slows down light wouldn't that make the robbers blind?
So what? This is a time dialated layer around an area of space that essencialy pauses everything observed in that space? Awesome!
So if all that light is slowed down and "trapped" when the device is active, would there be a sudden release of energy result in a burst of light and/or radiation upon deactivating the Event Cloak?
If so, if one could extend the cloak duration and soak up a lot of light, this could theoretically act as a sort of "light bomb", releasing all the accumulated energy in a single intense burst of energy.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;31097226]If it slows down light wouldn't that make the robbers blind?[/QUOTE]
No, but I imagine they'd see things going on around them in slow motion.
[editline]13th July 2011[/editline]
On a related note, SCIENCE IS AWESOME.
[QUOTE=ironman17;31097236]So if all that light is slowed down and "trapped" when the device is active, would there be a sudden release of energy result in a burst of light and/or radiation upon deactivating the Event Cloak?
If so, if one could extend the cloak duration and soak up a lot of light, this could theoretically act as a sort of "light bomb", releasing all the accumulated energy in a single intense burst of energy.[/QUOTE]
Oh, you're right, the light would keep piling up into the curved volume of space. Good one.
Anyone else feel like tearing this apart? What about the people inside the cloak being torn apart by the curvature of space?
[QUOTE=ThatHippyMan;31097142]For a while, no one ever expected to see a black hole because they were purely theoretical and some equations pointed towards their possible existence. Give the technology a hundred years.[/QUOTE]
We have never observed a black hole directly though, only its effects on the surrounding space. But yeah, a hundred years is a good estimate, if any.
[QUOTE=demoguy08;31097293]We have never observed a black hole directly though, only its effects on the surrounding space. But yeah, a hundred years is a good estimate, if any.[/QUOTE]
That's the same thing, lol. You can't see a black hole except for it's effect on the surrounding space.
[QUOTE=demoguy08;31097293]We have never observed a black hole directly though, only its effects on the surrounding space.[/QUOTE]
Closest we'll ever get to being able to see an object that literally sucks in light.
EDIT: Ninja'd by a mod.
So, when looking out of it, someone approaching would find you faster than you'd see them coming?
[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;31097334]That's the same thing, lol. You can't see a black hole except for it's effect on the surrounding space.[/QUOTE]
Hahah yeah good point.
[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;31097271]No, but I imagine they'd see things going on around them in slow motion.
[editline]13th July 2011[/editline]
On a related note, SCIENCE IS AWESOME.[/QUOTE]
That would make navigating the bank rather hard wouldn't it? Although they'd be seeing things slower people would still be moving around at normal pace meaning that you'd be pretty much doing all of that with the hope of not bumping into someone.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;31097594]That would make navigating the bank rather hard wouldn't it? Although they'd be seeing things slower people would still be moving around at normal pace meaning that you'd be pretty much doing all of that with the hope of not bumping into someone.[/QUOTE]
Maybe you could do it after closing time.
You'd have to know the exact "delay" and calculate your time needed, and the time needed to place the cloak beforehand to allow such time to be spent. The exit is the issue, unless you cloak an entire building..
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;31097594]That would make navigating the bank rather hard wouldn't it? Although they'd be seeing things slower people would still be moving around at normal pace meaning that you'd be pretty much doing all of that with the hope of not bumping into someone.[/QUOTE]
Isn't the effect limited to a layer around the object, and not everything inside the field?
I see more uses for this technology. :quagmire:
[QUOTE=Fatal-Error;31097801]Isn't the effect limited to a layer around the object, and not everything inside the field?[/QUOTE]
Well yes but since you're inside the layer you'd be getting light at a slower rate.
Whats to stop light speeding back up after it moves through the field. It is the field that slows light down , like light through other materials.
It would be much easier to just erect a Somebody Else's Problem field over what we want cloaked. No need to worry about cloaking devices.
[QUOTE=eatdembeanz;31098299]It would be much easier to just erect a Somebody Else's Problem field over what we want cloaked. No need to worry about cloaking devices.[/QUOTE]
But what if someone catches it out of the corner of their eye?
I know that someone, Somewhere will use this for [B]SUPRISE BUTTSECKS.[/B]​
This would make for an insanely awesome heist movie
this is about 6 months late
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
