European scientists say they have developed a prototype 'invisibility cloak', similar to those worn by Harry Potter.

British and German researchers say they can hide 3D objects by bending light waves. Researchers from the German Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Imperial College London used photonic crystals to conceal a small bump on a gold surface. Invisibility cloaks have already been developed but they only worked on two dimensions.

In other words, the objects that were supposed to be made invisible were immediately visible from the third dimension, the study said. The 'cloak' invented by the European team is the first to work on three dimensions. "For now these cloaking devices are just a beautiful and exciting benchmark to show what transformation optics can do," said Tolga Ergin, who led the research.

"This is very exciting, because mankind has always thought about being invisible or having invisibility cloaks. This is the first proof of principle. It shows that the technique works."  Mr Ergin warned that it would be years before anything as large as a person, car or tank could be made to disappear with this technique. "It is really hard to say what the future will bring, but the field is definitely very broad and the possibilities are very large," he said.

I wonder if they're available in different colours?


Dr Jones realised just how far behind his research was...

The original was here