[OT] Experts create invisibility cloak

[unreal]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6064620.stm

Shouldn't be long before we'll be getting our own Stealth Tools. :rolleyes: Shame there wasn't a video to show this extremely sexy experiment though.

[Apocalypsox]

Looks like fun...ill give them 5-10 years till we have a full invisability cloak type thing. Then snipers will be invincable, and i can steal one and fly to london for free to bug all you guys.

[Dribble Joy]

The problem is the size and shape of the 'cloak' that has to be constructed around your object you want to hide. Creating a 'skin' that can be folded around any old item may reduce the wave manipulation effect or render it useless.

Not to mention that it would still only work up to a cirtain frequency. Beyond that you would remain detectable. Passive sensory equipment would also pose a problem. A stealth fighter today is quite detectable to a thermal/magnetic scanner.

[RogerRamjet]

Stealth fighters have a very low erm, (im drunk) cross surface i guess, for RADAR to rebound from, due to wierd angles and RADAR soaking material, and the jet exhausts are cooled by ceramics if i remember correctly.

However, they're still at danger from good old eye sight.

(You know an 8 ton truck has a higher RADAR size than a jumbo jet)

[Dribble Joy]

The basic principal behind stealth is entirely angles, radar absorbant coatings are really just a refinment.

Imagine a room with perfectly black walls or a point in space where there's no stars/light or anything to reflect light.
Now imagine that there's a mirror nearby and a light source where you are. If the mirror is angled away by even the slightest amount the light being reflected back at you is tiny, at about 30 degrees it's somewhere in the millionths or less of the intensity of the source.
The real problem is designing an air-frame that will still opperate while mantaining as few planes at normal to the radar's likely angle of incidence as possible. As you may know this is actually impossible to do unless it's shaped in such a way that no pilot can directly fly it, all his actions are deciphered by the onboard computer into the required changes to maneuover the craft, along with all the constant changes demanded as it's so unstable (during one test flight a control flap fell off, but the comp took over and re-organised everything such that the pilot didn't know it had happened untill he landed and the crew of the following observation plane told him).

And yes there are exhaust cooling systems, but they can't drain it all, if they did, due to the way termodynamics opperates, there would be little or no trust at all (from what I remember from my termo lectures).

And yes you can use sight. The British Rapier system uses visual, radar and thermal sensing, and has been shown to detect stealth craft with decent reliability. Much to the denial of the US government :p.

[RogerRamjet]

Wooo i'm sober now.

I used to know a lot more about planes, kinda lost interest now :(

Apparently the Afghans shot one down (allegedly) using flak.

[Skusty]

Pff, i got a Cloakingdevice in Battlefield 2142, if you tried to impress me you have failed! :lol:

[Nidhogg]

I've got one. Here's a picture (http://www.subcentral.ch/images/history/010117-raum_leer.jpg) of me wearing it.

N

[Mighty Max]

Nevermind, reading is my friend, ignore me

[blackpheonix]

I've got one. Here's a picture (http://www.subcentral.ch/images/history/010117-raum_leer.jpg) of me wearing it.

N

lmfao <3 nid

[nobby]

I love your Picture Nidhogg!

You're teh Sex !

[james_finn]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6064620.stm

Shouldn't be long before we'll be getting our own Stealth Tools. :rolleyes: Shame there wasn't a video to show this extremely sexy experiment though.

There was no video because it only works with microwaves - and you cant see microwaves! :)

/Delphi

[nobby]

so it's just microwaves that become invisible ?

Bah !

Pointless ! :p

[silent000]

I dunno microwaves supply me with heavenly foods like curry and more curry >.>

[james_finn]

so it's just microwaves that become invisible ?

Bah !

Pointless ! :p

Nah its not pointless they have managed to make the waves realign as if they hadnt been through the material. So what the research will be for them will be to make it work with EM radiation with the wavelength of visible light (Although if they do it, im sure that the BBC wont be reporting on it!)

/Delphi

[solid-rock]

You know an easyer solution would be a pointy stick to poke peoples eyes out. A fraction of the costs and it even continues to work after youve gotten rid of the stick.