If you are one of the many children, okay, adults, still waiting for your Hogwarts acceptance letter, we have good news! This insane video shows Japanese technology that has actually managed to create an invisibility cloak, just like good old Harry's. They call it the 'transparent cloak' and it is pretty amazing.
The cloak is made using Retro-reflective Projection Technology, a process that superimposes the virtual world onto the real world. They call it creating an 'Augmented Reality.' (Creepy, right?) So actually, the cloak is not invisible per se, but rather made of lots of tiny beads that reflect light only in the direction they came from.
A camera in the cloak takes in the scene behind the wearer. Then, according to Creator's Project: "A computer processes the background imagery and relays it to a projector that filters through a half mirror and projects the scene onto the wearer. From a certain angle, the cloaked person looks transparent to onlookers."
The scientist behind it all, Dr. Susumu Tachi, is hoping to expand this technology to cover blindspots in cars, planes and helicopters. Personally, we are content with the cloak, but we understand that this has wider implications. While science has had a go at creating an invisibility cloak many times before, and have recently even created a time cloak, this technology seems to be a work of digital art. What do you think: art, science or both?
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