June 13, 2004

Cloak of invibility

A Japanese scientist -- Susumu Tachi, a professor of computer science and physics at the University of Tokyo is showing his "Cloak of Invisibility" at Nextfest, an exhibition of emerging technologies in San Francisco. According to an article in the New Zealand Mail and Guardian: bq. "It's a kind of augmented reality," he said of his device. In reality, the "optical camouflage" cloak is anything but invisible. It is made up of "retro-reflective material" coated with tiny light-reflective beads that cover its entire length. The cloak is also fitted with cameras that project what is at the back of the wearer on to the front, and vice versa. The effect, as the Japanese team demonstrated last week, is to make the wearer blend with his background. Interesting - could be fun in limited applications. You need to remember though that a system using projectors on 3-D objects will be very senesetive to the viewers vantage point and any appreciable shift will cause fringing and blurring. Still, I look forward to seeing where this leads... Hat tip to AMCGLTD Posted by DaveH at June 13, 2004 4:50 PM