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Metamaterials, AI, and the Road to Invisibility Cloaks(open.substack.com)
35 points by Annabella_W 2 days ago | 18 comments
A_D_E_P_T 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

You don't need metamaterials. There are various patents on "invisibility cloak" systems, and most of them use screens and cameras to project what's behind the wearer onto the front-facing screen, e.g.: https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2016160588A1

Some others, mostly intended for military vehicles, aim to match surface IR emissions to the background.

Using metamaterials -- which need to be printed or, even worse, made with lithography techniques -- adds unnecessary cost and vastly increases complexity.

nine_k a day ago | parent [-]

Screens have a very limited range of brightness. More importantly, they only project a picture in one direction, so, if you can move laterally, you'll notice that it's a flat picture.

If metamaterials can alleviate any of that to some degree, they could make a form of invisibility cloak covering large objects practical.

Annabella_W a day ago | parent [-]

Agree, both screens and metamaterials for this application have their pros and cons. Manufacturing metamaterials at a large scale is an area I'm looking into next!

bilsbie 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Minor thing but how cool to use this on pillars of cars and have total visibility ?

Annabella_W a day ago | parent [-]

This would actually be great! I guess the core challenge to achieving this would be in designing a metamaterial that meets the structural demands (strength-to-weight ratio) of a car body while also performing the complex wave manipulation required for invisibility. I wonder how far we are from reconciling those two very different requirements. Perhaps with the use of AI for metamaterials design we could be closer than we think!

bilsbie a day ago | parent [-]

They were talking about a cloak. So conceivably you just keep the existing materials and wrap this around it.

bovermyer 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

More than an invisibility cloak, I'd like to be able to "paint" my house with a programmable material that could change color/pattern.

GistNoesis a day ago | parent | next [-]

Do you mean something like an e-ink display like on the BMW iX flow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpKO-VuHMFA

kamarg a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I knew a guy that was extremely upset to find out that there isn't a lenticular garage door product so he could have it display an "animated" image as it opened/closed.

dboreham 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

HOA president enters the room..

eru 18 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Mostly only in the US.

tug2024 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]

nl 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

See also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=588610 from 2009, when it was first shown this was possible.

Edit: and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2762325 which had more discussion

Annabella_W a day ago | parent [-]

Thanks for sharing!

raugustinus 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

So confused when I read invincibility cloak.

Legend2440 a day ago | parent | next [-]

You could probably make a bulletproof cloak out of kevlar right now.

Might be a little stiff though.

Annabella_W a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Now that really would be science fiction haha!

Nevermark a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Ah yes, the dynamic structural assistance cloak. It is on the list.

Along with the aerodynamic lift and propulsion cloak.

The future is super.