Without a doubt, one of people’s fantasies, no matter their age, is to own an invisibility cloak like the ones shown is the movies. Even though there have been many reports about such experiments, none managed to actually deliver it. The newest announcement on this matter, was made by the scientists at Duke University, who might actually be close to finding the answer.

The study was conducted by six scientists, among who are Roupeng Liu and Chunlin Li.

According to their statement, they managed to develop a new device that is significantly more acurate at cloaking an object from visible light. The light-bending composite material detours electromagnetic waves around an object, reconnecting them on the other side. Thursday’s edition of the journal Science presents all the details.

"The difference between the original device and the latest model is like night and day," explained Mr. David R. Smith, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke, who is also the senior member of the research team. He continued by saying that "The new device can cloak a much wider spectrum of waves--nearly limitless--and will scale far more easily to infrared and visible light. The approach we used should help us expand and improve our abilities to cloak different types of waves." He also talked about the possible uses for such a product, mentioning the improvement of wireless communications through the elimination of obstructions or their use as protective shields for preventing the penetration of sound, vibrations and seismic waves.

He concluded by offering an example of the process, calling the cloaking effect a mirage, just like the times we see water hovering over the road, when in fact is a reflection from the sky. "The mirage you see is cloaking the road below," he explained. 

The cloak measures 20 inches by 4 inches by one inch and is composed of thousands of metamaterials, which are made using the fiberglass material found in circuit boards. The original version demanded over four months to make, while this one was already done after just nine days. The initial work, completed in 2006, was responsible for the discovery of these metamaterials and paved the way for today’s evolution.

They are not the first to attempt completing such a project, as the scientists from the University of California at Berkeley worked on redirecting light around 3D objects.

This is surely a step in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go before reaching the results shown in the movies, which is actually what people understand and imagine when it comes to this topic.

Considering the wide spectrum of aplicability for such a device, the research was supported by the National Science Foundation of China, Raytheon Missile Systems, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, InnovateHan Technology, the National Basic Research Program of China and National Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China.