Truth Collective

When I was a child I wanted to have the power of invisibility. I’m sure most kids had a similar desire. After watching American Ninja a few times I thought if I meditated long and hard, I could actually make this happen. One time, after some good meditating, I convinced myself I was invisible, but I could see myself in the mirror! I figured it was just because I was looking into the mirror, but anybody else looking wouldn’t see me. Then Mom asked me what I wanted to eat for dinner. “Shhh!!! You can’t see me! I’m invisible!” Inside, I was broken. Meditation obviously didn’t work.

I continued to play with the idea of invisibility through magic tricks. I would stand in a doorway holding a blanket high in front of me, letting it drape down to the floor so I was hidden behind it. With a sudden shift I would toss the blanket up just enough allowing me time to run down the hall to the side of me. The blanket would fall and “Poof!” I was invisible! But not really… I gave up hope. All was lost!

But now, there may be hope! It’s still a work in progress (and is very likely a long way off), but researchers have come up with a cloak that can not only make objects invisible (at a distance), but can also make objects appear as other objects.

This research follows research and development performed by Susumu Tachi, a professor at Tokyo University. Susumu actually developed a prototype of his work. This is old news, but you can read it here at BBC News and watch a video here.