Scientist invents invisible coat

Check out this NYT article .

When I first saw this I thought it was a joke. But it seems it's not.

Here a short version of the story:
A scientist, Susumu Tachi, has a raincoat that is partly invisible! Well, really it's not, but that how it looks. The thing is that the scientis has a videocamera-system that can project video onto a special fabric. So what is actually happening is he's recording what's behind the raincoat and projects it to the front-side of it. Neat!

I bet the army can find this useful for camouflage - if they can develop the system further. But this inevention can probably be used for lots of stuff. How about free enterance to the movies and the girls locker room? ;)

More stories about the invisible coat here: http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=susumu+tachi

And WTF has this to do with security, you might say? Such a cool invention deserves to hit the front page!

That was too weird. . . how do you guys find stuff like this!

Ya that was quite interesting !!

great job!!

How about stuff that can make person :firedevil

I remeber reading something about this on wired, quite a few months ago. The army was trying to use something similar, but instead of retro-reflective beads, they were using fibrous optical components inbedded in the clothing to produce the image. From the article I had read they said that it works, it just isn't practical yet, as the materials used aren't as flexible or durable as they had first hoped. . .really good start though. Now where's the stinkin' robot I thought I would have four years ago??

~In regards to proactive's response below, from what I remember from the article they were actually a lot closer to implementing the tech on tanks and such since they didn't have the same problems with the flexabiltiy of the material. . .wish I could find that articel again.

I don't know if the army has them, but wouldn't it be possible to make military equipment that changes color? I've seen the war coverage they have grey tanks, I guess that is suitable in the desert. But how about warfare in the winter, do they paint their tanks white? Probably they do. But if they use the same equipment in different terrain types, say they suddenly drive into a green hill scenery, their grey tanks would be very visible. Now, if they had tanks that could change color, that could be a huge benefit.

Anyone heard about any substanse or material that changes color, like a chameleon? Could probably sell that to the army, too!

yeah you could definetly use some sort of chameleon type substance. But if they were in desert and they when to some where in the snow they would most likely change tanks for the different type of terrain.

-crypticgod

how can we open the eyes of the dead when we ourselves are hollow.

yeah, it's the year 2003 already, aren't we supposed to having flying cars and stuff now? anyway, i think it's a neat concept. but from ex-military experience, i know that the army will find some way to make it cost them ten times what it would cost otherwise, then they would use it like twice and put it in a museum

i already knew that this amazing a story , heard from my univer`s Dr. pro
and i really envy them still now.

Maybe I'm wrong but from what I was reading, the theory behind this is that if you have a picture of the background and you project that picture on top of a person or object in front of the actual background then it appears that you can "see though" the object. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I gathered from the articles I have read. Which leads to me to think, you'll have to have a projector running with the images of whatever object you want to appear on top of whomever you are wanting to be "invisible". That doesn't seem to useful, especially if the military wants to use it on any covert ops. Would you not need a projectionist running around with you looking for an outlet for his projector? If anyone can explain the science behind this please do...

Here is a link to the Dr. Susumu's website
http://www.star.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/proj...DIA/xv/oc.html

Dopple: I think that the 'projectionist' or camera is embedded in the material on both sides. It's a mixture of miniture cameras and fiber optics (or beads in the case of the article in this thread) on both sides, or at least IMO it should be on both sides, so the effect is across both sides of the body. No need for anyone to walk around with you if it's all self contained.

I heard about this a couple years ago from one of my teachers and didn't believe them. Guess this goes to prove the point that no matter how old you are, you can still learn something...ha

wow that's a really cool illusion

lol :)

Woun't It Be So Kewl If They Eventuly Sold 'em In Shops :)
Anyone Interested In WinScript Virii? >:-)

By DaRK eAgLE [HTM-VX Team]

cool

damn...if those thing's got real good....you'd have a serious problem on your hands....privacy would go out the window...lol..stilll who wouldn't want to play with one of those?!

- Noia

There's an article about new fabrics including one with built-in invisibility in the Jan 2003 issue of National Geographic.