back to article Boffins hide cute kitty behind invisibility shield

It's not going to actually fool everyone, but a China-Singapore partnership has demonstrated an “invisibility cloak” that works with natural light. While still pretty crude, the demonstration beats prior work in one key characteristic: it doesn't need polarised light (or microwaves) as previous cloaking demonstrations have …

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  1. LinkOfHyrule
    Paris Hilton

    Welcome to the world of...

    INVIZIBELZ LOLCATZ!

    1. Sir Runcible Spoon
      Coat

      Re: Welcome to the world of...

      "INVIZIBELZ LOLCATZ!" that look like they are about to take a shit.

  2. Tom 7

    So when you see a cage with nothing in it

    shoot that.

    Copyright M.Python 1974 ish.

  3. Paul_Murphy

    Schrödinger's

    Phew - looks like the cat is alive.

  4. Wize

    The first video looks like it could be a picture stuck to the back of the glass.

    The second looks like the box is a synchronised video screen, thus it looks a slightly different colour.

    Just looks like the effect you get with Transparent Desktop (littletinbox.co.uk)

    1. Suricou Raven

      While it does look fake, it'd be quite difficult to get teams at four universities to work together on a fraud like that.

    2. Mike Green

      @Wise

      Except with the goldfish you can see the shadow of the stirrer thing move in the first video. Still, until we get verification, I'm a bit doubtful...

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: @Wise

        A fake would look much better!

    3. AMB-York Silver badge
      Black Helicopters

      Not sure

      How does the glass 'know' to hide the fish/cat, but allow the flowers to show?

      1. Alex Rose

        Re: Not sure

        Because the fish/cat are inside the "cloak" whereas the flowers are not. I suspect that you are thinking that it's like this from above:

        Flowers

        Fish

        --------- <- "cloak"

        Observer

        When in fact it's like this:

        Flowers

        -----------

        | Fish |

        -----------

        Observer

        i.e. the fish/cat is surrounded by the cloaking material.

        1. AMB-York Silver badge
          Thumb Up

          Re: Not sure

          @Alex - that makes sense. Thanks.

      2. Rawling

        Re: Not sure

        Weed/flowers is behind the "cloak", fish/cat is inside it.

  5. Ole Juul

    No smoke

    So it must be mirrors.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I don't know ..

    ..about the fish but everyone knows that all cats can make themselves invisible at will.

    1. Ole Juul

      Re: I don't know ..

      Cats can also make fish invisible.

      1. Ragarath
        Thumb Up

        Re: I don't know .. @Ole Juul

        Have an upvote, that made me chuckle!

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I don't know ..

        "Cats can also make fish invisible"

        They are probably even quicker at making themselves invisible if they've made a fish invisible

      3. samlebon23
        Happy

        Re: I don't know ..

        I can do that with sardines.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Well Done

    Help the Massive Chinese PLA develop invisibility so no-one will notice when the invade Taiwan, India, Vietnam, Korea, Cambodia etc.

    What is that Chinese Take-away van doing parked outside? I dont remember ordering any Ch

  8. Schultz
    Boffin

    Bending of light without phase preservation...

    sounds like a recipe to use mirrors. It'll only work from a static point of view, but their demonstration videos show nothing beyond that.

    Please tell me that I am wrong!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      prisms not mirrors

      It's all in the paper, and not complicated. They also describe the limitations.

    2. Charlie van Becelaere

      Re: Bending of light without phase preservation...

      You are wrong.

      I hope you feel better now.

  9. Cliff

    You hide the fish

    By leaving it alone with the cat... amitite?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cloaked cat ...

    Iz romulan battle cruiser ...

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    From what I can see, HP made cloaking tech years ago.

    *prints picture & holds between self and camera*

    *is cloaked*

    MAGIC

  12. jake Silver badge

    Whatever.

    The fish will still bite the hook if I know where to find 'em, even if I can't see 'em. And I can send the dawgs after the fscking ground squirrels, even if there is tall grass to hide in.

    Ability to use tools is all very well and good ... knowing which tool to use, and when, is far more important.

    This toy is just that ...a lab toy with zero practical use.

    1. Paul Kinsler

      Re: a lab toy with zero practical use.

      Common practical uses for lab toys with "zero practical use" are as a demonstrations, proof-of-concept, or as educational equipment. I think this can function as all three.

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: a lab toy with zero practical use.

        >zero practical use.

        didn't they say the same about LASERs?

      2. Euripides Pants
        Thumb Up

        Re: a lab toy with zero practical use.

        The practical use is fscking up Google's Street View photography.

    2. James Hughes 1

      Re: Whatever. @Kake

      Jake, like Eadon, you never fail to perform to your stereotype.

      Well done. Consistency is good, even if the consistency is bad.

      1. Tom 38

        Re: Whatever. @Kake

        I dunno, I was expecting jake to come on and tell us this is nothing new, he made the first ones of these back in the 80s and can make his ranch disappear.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Whatever. @Kake

          Heh - Don't mind Jake. He's not used to being called out on his idiotic pronouncements -spent his life as small fish in a tiny pond I wager - He hasn't quite gotten used to the big bad innanet yet.

  13. Zot
    Happy

    Haven't magicians used this trick for years?

    ? ;)

    I suspect they have.

    1. Michael Dunn

      Re: Haven't magicians used this trick for years?

      Pepper's Ghost comes to mind.

  14. At0micAndy
    FAIL

    so, silly question, why can't the wand be seen and the plants can be seen? I suspect the invisibility shield is actually a photograph. An easy demo to make for anyone with a camera, photo printer and a you tube account. I look forward to a plethora of invisible fauna with visible flora.

  15. This post has been deleted by its author

  16. Stoneshop
    Facepalm

    Duh

    If you experiment with cats and goldfish, of course the fish will disappear.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Invisibul kitteh wants visibul cheezburger.

  18. Don Jefe
    Joke

    Shopped!

    This is bullshit. You can tell because the cat went exactly where it was supposed to and took a seat. Cats never do what you want them to do.

    1. Dan 37

      Re: Shopped!

      if my cat is anything to go by then the simple act of paying more attention to any given object than the cat is likely to cause the cat to go and sit there. Makes wrapping christmas presents fun.

    2. Matt Piechota

      Re: Shopped!

      Ah, but the object appears to be a box, which as you know a cat can't resist.

      1. Tom 35

        Cat ina box

        It's true, any box will put a cat right where you want it.

        http://youtu.be/2XID_W4neJo

        1. Martin Budden Silver badge
          Thumb Up

          Re: Cat ina box

          Every cat in every box ever:

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKvNqe8cKU4

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Exceptional!

    Lame trick I think, hiding stuff behind a flash player "Error #2124" ... doesn't fool me for a minute.

    1. Goat Jam

      Re: Exceptional!

      Agreed*. Didn't Flash die already?

      * I had Error#2036 myself

  20. Simon 79
    Angel

    That cat is using the invisibility cloak for privacy...

    ... whilst its obviously setting up to take a poo! LOOK!

    1. FrankAlphaXII
      Thumb Up

      Re: That cat is using the invisibility cloak for privacy...

      Funny, my wife said the same thing when she saw the Video. Her exact words were "Why am I watching a video of a cat getting ready to poop?"

  21. dvd

    Didn't they do this on Top Gear?

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Penn and Teller, Amazing Randi, to the white phone

    And in what way is anything in those videos any different than what you can see most nights in Vegas at countless shows?

    Other than not being nearly as good as watching Penn and Teller - I swear that Teller could palm a running chainsaw.

    There's another link between those videos and Penn and Teller, and that is

    BULLSHIT!

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    Beware the Romulan goldfish!!

    Those sneaky bastards are always encroaching on the Neutral Zone......

  24. dpGoose
    Alien

    If it bleeds, we can kill it!!!

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why was the butterfly visible?

    1. Don Jefe

      What butterfly?

  26. Willy Wonka

    SPOOROW is going to be all over this

    Society for the Preservation of the Optical Refraction of Water are going to fight this gills and claws.

  27. Dodgy Geezer Silver badge
    FAIL

    As above..

    ...It's not going to actually fool everyone...

    It's not actually going to convince anyone. Because it looks like a simple opaque photograph of the background placed in front of the subject. If it's not, we need to get a better view of what it actually is...

  28. PeterM42
    Holmes

    Ah...

    ...it's all smoke and mirrors (except I didn't see any smoke...........)

    Mmmmm.

    1. samlebon23
      Childcatcher

      Re: Ah...

      And, I don't see mirrors.

  29. Frogmelon
    Black Helicopters

    Arm phasers and photon torpedoes!

    Would a functioning invisibility shield also work in the other direction, against incoming photons?

    I'm just wondering if developments along these lines could be used to shield a target from the high-energy laser weapons being developed at the moment. If you can redistribute the photons then that kind of makes the enrgy weapon obsolete. Though I'm guessing the energy would need to be dissipated somewhere, so you'd either need heatsinks or batteries or another laser to just vent the energy somewhere else.. even back at the attacker.

    Now if you could just get rid of the physical medium and generate an energy field which could manipulate photons in the same way as the glass shield.. boom! There's your Science Fiction energy shielding/Romulan cloaking device.. as a poster above me mentioned. :)

  30. Frogmelon

    Miaow

    PS: This could solve world hunger.

    The cat and the fish are put behind the shield.

    The fish then enters a quantum state where it is both inside the cat's stomach, and not inside the cat's stomach *at the same time*.

    The cat is happy, because it's eaten the fish.

    The fish is still happy, because it's not been eaten.

    Remove the shield. Replace the cat with another hungry cat and repeat the process.

    Maybe this is how the loaves and fishes thing worked 2000 years ago?

  31. samlebon23
    Headmaster

    The Pentagon has a much more sophisticated tech. They used it on September 11 to make the jet that hit the Pentagon building disappear.

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