University of Rochester Scientists Are One Step Closer to Invisibility Cloak

Harry Potter fans are very familiar with the Cloak of Invisibility, a pivotal magical item in the series that allows anyone shrouded beneath the lightweight fabric to be invisible to the world around them. Researchers in upstate New York may have just brought that magic to life.

In a video posted by Futurism, University of Rochester scientists have created a device that bends light around an object, which causes the object to become invisible to the human eye.

Watch:

The “Rochester Cloak,” as it is being called, “is capable of doing continuous and multidirectional cloaking in three dimensions,” the video states.

“Like most cloaking devices, it works by bending light around objects to conceal them,” the video continues. “The placement of the optics shifts the background so you don’t see any visible distortion.”

While different invisibility “cloaks” are in the works from other researchers, the “Rochester Cloak” uses “basic, off the shelf optics to do the job,” the video states. This is notable, as Rochester’s version “could easily be scaled with larger optics.”

The Rochester Cloak “not only overcomes some of the limitations of previous devices, but it uses inexpensive, readily available materials in a novel configuration,” it says on the school’s website, Rochester.edu.

Is a full-body cloak coming next? What a magical – kind of scary – future we may soon be living in.