Dean Richards

Staff Writer

Whereas for now the only way to create an invisibility cloak is with magic, it seems like that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case forever. A researcher at the University of Rochester in New York and his 14 year-old son, John and Benjamin Howell, have recently published a paper in which they present their latest invention, which is actually able to cloak a human being!

Sure, it isn’t perfect yet… If you were planning on breaking into forbidden libraries or hiding from potentially scary teachers, you might want to be careful: The cloak can only turn you invisible from one point of view.

That means that if you want to stun a particularly annoying and pinkish headmistress while she is in court so that you can steal her necklace, which just so happens to be a horcrux, (because who has never wanted to do that?), you would have to make sure that the entire court saw you from the same angle. Slightly problematic, perhaps, but it’s worth a try!

Another minor issue is that, despite what many news sites are reporting, the cloaking device is not yet an actual “cloak”. John Howell made use of mirrors and lenses which reflected the light away from the invisible object/person, but unfortunately, unless you subtly want to carry around a giant mirror, actually walking through the Ministry of Magic might be a problem as well.

Regardless, it’s a step in the right direction, and it does look very impressive. Some other efforts have been made to actually turn things invisible, but none have been as effective as this one.

Check out the video below in which two of John Howell’s sons demonstrate the device, and let us know what you think!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJb9RnAVDuE]

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