Latest in invisibility technology on display at British science fair
Nothing like the anticipation surrounding a Harry Potter movie premiere to stoke interest in invisibility cloaks.
Queen Mary, University of London, announced this week that it is working with three other universities to develop invisibility cloaking technology not unlike that employed by the Hogwarts wizards who will be starring in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2” next week.
The five-year, $6.4 million Quest for Ultimate Electromagnetics using Spatial Transformations (QUEST) project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Elements of the research are being showcased this week at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in London.
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Professor Yang Hao from Queen Mary’s School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science said in a statement: “There has been intensive research into the principles of invisibility science which has now matured to the point that the next big step is to use the insights of theory to produce practical devices…. Invisibility is an optical illusion created by the transformation of space in suitable materials. Wireless technology relies on electromagnetic waves like radio waves that are similar in behaviour to light, but have much longer wavelengths, and what is possible for light is often also possible for other electromagnetic waves.”
What’s really interesting about this research from an IT industry perspective, beyond the general idea of invisible anything, is that the technology developed could find applications in everything from wireless communications and energy transfer to security. Possible applications: shielding mobile phone electromagnetic waves in such a way that phones could be used on airplanes without causing interference, and the development of tiny wireless antennas that could be unobtrusively sewn into clothing.
Research into transformation optics at the heart of such technology is based on man-made metamaterials that can bend lightwaves to create the illusion of invisibility.
Many university researchers (Michigan Tech/Penn State, Duke University and Carnegie Mellon University and Purdue University to name a few) are focusing on this technology, which has been called by Time, Science and others one of the most exciting areas of research in recent years.
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