Zhang Demonstrates a cloaking box at TED that makes invisible from audience anything placed behind it

a scientist from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore demonstrated a small box made of calcite optical crystal that made anything placed behind the box appear invisible to people watching the demonstration at the TED conference.

Professor Zhang admitted that his research was in its early stages, and said that his team was still working out how to make larger and more useful prototypes of the invisibility cloak.

“There are still many limitations here and I don’t have the answers for how to solve them,” he said. “At this stage, this is already the best we can do. There will be quite a long way to go before it can be applied on a practical level. But all researchers in this field, including myself, are making progress, albeit slowly.”

He said that his work with calcite might have more uses than hiding objects, as the substance could also help to improve optical fibres, such as that cables used for broadband internet, or create better “imaging” products such as digital cameras.

Previous Lab Demonstration by Zhang of Invisibility

If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on ycombinator or StumbleUpon. Thanks