Invisibility is usually the stuff of science fictional, but researchers in the US claim to have created an invisibility cloak. Inspired by Harry Potter’s iconic cloak, scientists from the University of Rochester have created a cloaking device. But, unlike Harry’s cloak, the scientists used a combination of four standard lenses for their device called the Rochester Cloak.

The device works by bending light around an object; thus making it seem as if it has been cloaked entirely without distorting the background.

“From what we know, this is the first cloaking device that provides three-dimensional, continuously multidirectional cloaking,” said graduate student and researcher Joseph Choi. “I imagine this could be used to cloak a trailer on the back of a semi-truck so the driver can see directly behind him. It can be used for surgery, in the military, in interior design, even art.”

In the Harry Potter books the cloak of invisibility lets the wearer vanish beneath it’s silvery transparency. Watch how the university achieved their cloak in the video below.

The Rochester Cloak

“It’s been a really popular thing for example in science fiction, also in Harry Potter but I think people are really excited by the prospect of just being invisible,” said professor John Howell.

Would you like to be invisible? Share what you would do if you could cloak yourself in the comments below.

Source: http://mashable.com/2014/09/26/how-to-make-invisibility-cloak/