“Invisibility Cloak” Demoed at TED2013

The so-called “invisibility cloak” has been a hot topic of scientific research for years now — bending light around an object to render it invisible to the naked eye. Imagine a stream rushing around a rock, but with light instead of water, and you get a rough idea of how it would work. At TED2013, Ted Fellow Baile Zhang of Nanyang Technological University has been demoing the newest iteration of this technology.

Unfortunately, the TED2013 talks haven’t been uploaded yet, so we’re waiting on the official video of the demonstration as much as you are. Apparently Zhang used calcite to create the first ever macroscopic invisibility cloak, which he used to make a rolled up pink post-it note disappear. Zhang’s calcite trick only works using a specific type of oil as the medium, but nonetheless sounds like an incredible proof of concept.

According to BoingBoing, Zhang is planning on scaling up the demo as large as possible, and that he’s doing it just for fun. That site had a video of the invisibility cloak in action, but unfortunately, it’s gone down under heavy traffic. Here’s hoping we can see a video fo this in action in the near future!

[via BoingBoing]