Optical Camouflage
While new high-performance, light-transmitting materials such as aerogel and light-transmitting concrete compel us to question the nature of solidity, a new technology developed by the University of Tokyo seeks to make matter disappear altogether.Scientists at the Tachi Laboratory have developed Optical Camouflage, which utilizes a collection of devices working in concert to render a subject invisible. Although more encumbering and complicated than Harry Potter's invisibility cloak, this system has essentially the same goal.
Optical Camouflage requires the use of clothing – in this case, a hooded jacket – made with a retro-reflective material, which is comprised by thousands of small beads that reflect light precisely according to the angle of incidence. A digital video camera placed behind the person wearing the cloak captures the scene that the individual would otherwise obstruct, and sends the data to a computer for processing. A sophisticated program calculates the appropriate distance and viewing angle, and then transmits the scene via projector using a combiner, or a half-silvered mirror with an optical hole, which allows a witness to perceive a realistic merger of the projected scene with the background – thus rendering the cloak-wearer invisible.
Potential applications of this technology include a process called mutual telexistence, in which real-time video of two or more distance-separated individuals is projected onto surrogate robotic participants via sophisticated communications technology, as well as various methods of removing tool-based optical obstructions, such as vehicles that allow pilots and drivers to see more of their exterior environment than is visible through windows, tools that allow doctors to witness an operation through their hands, or projectors that provide exterior views in windowless rooms. [via the Tachi Laboratory, University of Tokyo.]
Labels: 10, clothing, interfacial, invisibility, projection
