
Breakthrough in cloaking technology grabs military's attention - smaili
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/09/20/breakthrough-cloaking-technology-grabs-militarys-attention/72544510/
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rm_-rf_slash
I'm afraid. It's not the military that could really end up abusing
invisibility, it's non-state actors who could literally act as ghosts. If
there was just one broad daylight murder on the streets of Manhattan then,
well, 14 years ago there were four plane hijackings and look what that did to
air travel. Imagine the same fear when stepping out for a cup of coffee.

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djrogers
As the article points out, this isn't real invisibility - the object being
hidden from specific wavelengths is still in front of something that isn't, so
while you may not be able to a guy on the street, you'd see a guy shaped hole
in from of that starbucks he is walking by.

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rm_-rf_slash
So how does that asterisk stop someone from dropping in, taking their shots,
and fleeing without any way to identify them?

~~~
steamer25
If I understand the article correctly, the material can be designed to absorb,
rather than reflect, certain frequencies of electromagnetic radiation. When
this occurs in the visible spectrum, we call such materials, "black". If it
were really effective, clothing made from it would appear to be so dark that
it couldn't get any more black--aka none more black. Existing clothing might
not be quite that dark but it probably gets pretty close in terms of human
visibility.

The article would probably be more accurate to call this advancement a
potential improvement to stealth technology since it sounds like the intent is
to conceal planes from radar.

