Harry Potter had a magic cloak, and Susan Storm of the Fantastic Four had powers that made her disappear.
Being transparent could no longer be just a thing of the movies.
Associate Professor George Barbastathis and co-workers at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) in Singapore have made a cloak that can hide objects and it has been hailed as a scientific breakthrough.
Physics World, a renowned science publication, has hailed the cloak as one of the top 10 breakthroughs of 2010, ranking it fourth along with a similar prototype created by a different group of researchers from London.
The cloak is built from the naturally occurring crystalline material calcite.
The prototype can only work on a two-dimensional plane.
While it may look simple and unassuming for now, the possibilities from here on are endless.
Dr Barbastathis said: "In the future, it is possible theoretically and I'm certain at some timeframe, it will be possible to operate all around. So it will become what we call the three-dimensional cloak. Then it would be possible to hide objects, for example, underwater. I'm sure there are also military and security applications, and I can let your imagination run loose there."
Partly because the prototype is easy to construct and calcite is a low-cost material,
Dr Barbastathis said manufacturing costs amounted to no more than US$1,000 - a relatively low figure by research standards.
Moving forward, the team is exploring ways to improve the product and make it even cheaper and more accessible.
"At the moment, it is optimised for green visible light. It also works with other visible colours, but it is not perfect. There are things we can do to make it work even better at the full visible range. Also, I mentioned it is cheap, but one of course hopes to bring the cost down even further, if it is destined to have wider applications," said Dr Barbastathis, who is also a professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
SMART is MIT's first research centre outside the United States. The Singapore-MIT collaboration is a major research enterprise in partnership with the National Research Foundation of Singapore.
Being transparent could no longer be just a thing of the movies.
Associate Professor George Barbastathis and co-workers at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) in Singapore have made a cloak that can hide objects and it has been hailed as a scientific breakthrough.
Physics World, a renowned science publication, has hailed the cloak as one of the top 10 breakthroughs of 2010, ranking it fourth along with a similar prototype created by a different group of researchers from London.
The cloak is built from the naturally occurring crystalline material calcite.
The prototype can only work on a two-dimensional plane.
While it may look simple and unassuming for now, the possibilities from here on are endless.
Dr Barbastathis said: "In the future, it is possible theoretically and I'm certain at some timeframe, it will be possible to operate all around. So it will become what we call the three-dimensional cloak. Then it would be possible to hide objects, for example, underwater. I'm sure there are also military and security applications, and I can let your imagination run loose there."
Partly because the prototype is easy to construct and calcite is a low-cost material,
Dr Barbastathis said manufacturing costs amounted to no more than US$1,000 - a relatively low figure by research standards.
Moving forward, the team is exploring ways to improve the product and make it even cheaper and more accessible.
"At the moment, it is optimised for green visible light. It also works with other visible colours, but it is not perfect. There are things we can do to make it work even better at the full visible range. Also, I mentioned it is cheap, but one of course hopes to bring the cost down even further, if it is destined to have wider applications," said Dr Barbastathis, who is also a professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
SMART is MIT's first research centre outside the United States. The Singapore-MIT collaboration is a major research enterprise in partnership with the National Research Foundation of Singapore.