HomeComputingMobileInternetGamingElectronicsExtremeDealsExtremeTechExtremeThe first ‘unfeelability’ invisibility cloak will please campers and princesses everywhereThe first ‘unfeelability’ invisibility cloak will please campers and princesses everywhereBy Sebastian Anthony on June 20, 2014 at 12:45 pmComment
Share This articleYou know how a princess can feel a pea through 20 mattresses and 20 feather beds? Well, not any more. Researchers in Germany have created the first mechanical invisibility cloak. When this cloak is placed over an object, the object cannot be felt at all — either by your finger, or a more sensitive measuring device. This has obvious repercussions for the authentication of fairytale princesses, and also in the realm of camping (die, tree roots, die) and carpeting (cabling begone!) Personally, I hope someone takes this mechanical invisibility material and creates the world’s first sock that is immune to the terrifying strength of errant-in-the-night Lego bricks.
If you’ve been following ExtremeTech for a while, you’ll know that we’ve covered plenty of invisibility cloaks, all of wildly varying form and function. There have been some “conventional” cloaks that hide objects from visible light, but also lots that cloak against microwaves, sound waves, and various other forms of radiation. A mechanical invisibility cloak, however, is something new.
This mechanical cloak, created by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany, much like most other modern invisibility cloaks, is fashioned from a metamaterial. While an optical metamaterial bends light in a weird, not-seen-in-nature way, KIT’s mechanical metamaterial has a special structure that redirects physical force in a special way. KIT’s new metamaterial is constructed out of “needle-shaped cones” of polymer that are arranged in a crystalline lattice. It sounds like the mechanical metamaterial starts life as a big lump of polymer, and then a 3D laser lithography machine creates the exact right shape.
The end result of all this work is a piece of material that doesn’t reveal whatever’s underneath it. In the images throughout this story, that semi-cylinder simply cannot be felt by a probing finger — nor can it be detected by a more accurate measuring device. For more info on how the mechanical forces are contorted in this rather magical way, I suggest you hit up the research paper: doi:10.1038/ncomms5130 – “An elasto-mechanical unfeelability cloak made of pentamode metamaterials”. (Yes, the researchers actually call it an “unfeelability cloak,” but I think we’ll be sticking to the term mechanical invisibility cloak for now.)
There’s no word on commercialization of KIT’s mechanical metamaterial, but the press release notes that we might see some “interesting applications” in the next few years. The machine KIT used to create the metamaterial, the 3D lithography Nanoscribe, only really works on the small scale. But hey, thanks to the last 60 years of computer chip development, we know a lot about lithography. It’s not too crazy to think that we’ll soon have a method of producing large swaths of mechanical invisibility cloak.
Tagged In sciencefunmetamaterialsinvisibility cloakinvisibilityKarlsruhe Institute of Technologymechanical invisibilityShare This Article .article {margin:0px !important;}.AR_1 {margin :0 0 20px 0 !important;}.AR_2 {margin:0 0 20px 0;} CommentPost a Comment OG Trace MinavioMechanical invisibility cloak for use in vehicle impact zones?
Angel HamBut will the princess feel the stealth of a surprise buttsex?
http://www.something.com/ standardThatEscalatedQuickly.jpg
NoCondoms
Angel Ham*click* Hello? Yeah. I’m with Steve.
Mmhmm, nothing. Nothing at all.
I’m thinking things in the medical field. Band-aids that cover blisters? Customized arch supports? Football helmet lining? I like the idea of not feeling rocks and tree roots when I camp (Camp #29 in the Smokies), but what could this stuff do that my air mattress can’t? Maybe if the bottom of the tent was lined with this stuff, then I wouldn’t have to bring a mattress. In that case, how well does this stuff fold, and can it maintain shape after being folded/stuffed into a pack?
Magnus BlombergThis is more like “mechanical black” then invisible. You might as wall replace this material with a thick steel plate and you could still not tell what is under it by touching it.
The same goes for almost all “invisibility cloak”-articles on this site. The distiction between black and invisible is that something that is black is only “invisible” when in front of a black background while if something is truly invisible the background does not matter because it is still detected as if nothing was in front of it.
massaui guess we could make an abstraction here.
invisible = waves (for mesuement) pass trough the material or get bend around the material.
undetectable = waves don’t get reflected to the detector. either scattering or absorption.
Magnus BlombergWell i think that undetectable is the same as invisible. Even if the waves are absorbed or scattered so they don’t reach the detector the object is only black because a black siluett would be visible against a black background.
Avatar1337Socks wouldn’t make sense because it obviously has to be thicker than the object it is trying to hide. The same goes for carpets etc.
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