June 13, 2004

• Eh Skrik, are we so sure? ;)
• Actually, more recently it was covered here: "...NextFest will be taking place. Organized by Wired and sponsored by HP, The SF Chronicle, General Electric, General Motors, and many others, this is an expo on 'almost there' technologies. Ranging from [in]famous Moller aircar to a 'transparent cloak' from the Tachi Lab at Tokyo University to antibacterial powders from Canada to many, many others." Link to thread.
• Damn, not the Romulans again!
• New Nerdy Anoraks Hide Geeks from Short-Sighted Searchers.
• Reminds me of those adverts that we get in the UK where the private investigator facepaints himself in order to get into schools and tell kids about student benefits.
• Blaise, can you explain more or is a clip online? I've lost you.
• I am guessing that the invisible cloak is not capable of directional reprojection of the field behind the cloak... thus one would have to be perfectly aligned to see the cloak blend with the background.
• I know, that was a terrible description. I tried to find an example but I failed. So I just left like that. Which was a bad idea. If you're in the UK, just check a phone-box - they seem to have the same advert on most of them.
• I am guessing that the invisible cloak is not capable of directional reprojection of the field behind the cloak... thus one would have to be perfectly aligned to see the cloak blend with the background. Yeah. As it is now, I can only see this thing working in low-light conditions. And even then, barely as it'll probably give off more light than the ambient conditions call for. It's a good proof of concept, but it's got a long way to go before Motoko can use it.
• In real life, Harvey Mason would wrap himself in his Tarnkappe, step outside, and immediately be hit by a car. And imagine the parking lot follies of an invisible car! "Look, honey, there's one space open right there." [crash] Hunters' camo usually reverses to display a blaze orange lining.
• Mission Impossible used the same technique to make people disappear back in the 70's. Even though that was fiction, it's amazing that the idea has taken this long for someone to try for real.
• Cloak of Invisibility? I'd settle for a Cone of Silence.
• I am guessing that the invisible cloak is not capable of directional reprojection of the field behind the cloak... thus one would have to be perfectly aligned to see the cloak blend with the background. I dunno, dude, check out that video of the inventor wearing his cloak in front of a TV monitor at the NextFest. He does a couple of spins and it looks pretty seamless to me...then again, I have limited knowledge of these things, and I don't know if it only looks that way because I'm watching from a 2D monitor. Still...I want one.
• I'd seen this before and not been impressed, but the video looks a hell of a lot more impressive, at least as a research tool. Be interesting to see (that is, not see) where this goes in 5 years.
• A US-British team of scientists has successfully tested a cloak of invisibility in the laboratory. The device mostly hid a small copper cylinder from microwaves in tests at Duke University, North Carolina. It works by deflecting the microwaves around the object and restoring them on the other side, as if they had passed through empty space. But making an object vanish before a person's eyes is still the stuff of science fiction - for now.
• So put your clothes back on, weirdo.
• *lip quiver* but... but... I was having SO MUCH FUN! And how did you know? I thought I was invisible?? And thank you, I always take weirdo as a compliment! *bats eyelashes*
• How did I know? I have X-Ray vision. BTW: you need to chew your food better.
• Copper cylinders are one thing -- when will this work on my stacks of Perfect 10 back issues?
• A-ha! So you were checking me out, eh? *puts on Iceland spar spectacles* *looks in nunia's direction* wabba! wabba! *flosses teeth*
• Perfect 10 Capt? *googles*
• You double-refracting weirdo.
• Stop it, you're making me blush!