back to article 'Time cloak' can hide data - but not the fact there's something to hide

Holes created in light can hide data beyond the wit of any thief, who won't even know it's there thanks to the latest temporal cloaking technique. Or so we're told. The idea here is to split light, with its wavering signal, into component wavelengths, then offset those wavelengths such that they cancel each other out. Anyone …

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  1. AbortRetryFail
    Thumb Up

    "hit them until they tell you"

    Reminds me of the xkcd skit on the same subject:

    http://xkcd.com/538/

    1. Wzrd1 Silver badge

      Re: "hit them until they tell you"

      Naw, that is too primitive. Didn't you listen to Bush the Lesser? Enhanced interrogation techniques will get everything.

      As long as you wear a white hat, you're good.

  2. Paul Kinsler
    Happy

    Re: the work [...] follows on from a 2010 experiment

    I think you meant to say: follows on from the concept as proposed by McCall et al in J. Optics (2010/11), followed up by an experiment at Cornell (published in Nature 2012).

    And re "but when it comes to security the ability to drop one's data into a time hole isn't quite as useful as it sounds cool" -- what, sounding cool isn't a useful thing? I mean, it got you to report on it, didn't it? :-)

    1. Suburban Inmate
      Alien

      Re: Time Hole

      As Time Holes are so rare and therefore have yet to be studied in any great detail, would it not make the communications significantly harder to intercept when routed via Nodnol?

  3. Steve Foster
    Facepalm

    Silly question, but...

    ...if I hide something in this temporal hole, and that means no-one can find or see it, how do I get it back again later?

    1. Paul Kinsler

      Re: Silly question, but...

      It's an illusion - it (the event) hasn't gone anywhere, it just doesn't get seen.

  4. Tom Maddox Silver badge
    Holmes

    Prior art

    "Time is an illusion, lunch time doubly so." -- Slartibartfast

    Clearly, this is primitive work on bistromathics and/or a Somebody Else's Problem Field.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Prior art

      Ford Prefect, I think you'll find.

    2. Wzrd1 Silver badge

      Re: Prior art

      Obviously a primitive SEP field.

  5. Robert Helpmann??
    Childcatcher

    Steganography?

    Could this be used as a stenographic technique in which one (presumably encrypted) message was sent using the regular signal and another message was dropped in using this method... or did I completely misunderstand how it works?

  6. AbortRetryFail
    Joke

    White hole spewing time engines dead air supply low advice please.

    So what is it?

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