Forget Harry Potter’s cloak, a British company have made a real-life invisibility shield.
London-based Invisibility Shield Co. say they have turned science fiction into reality and that their fully functional shields can hide a whole person. Their innovation uses a precision engineered lens array to direct much of the light reflected from the subject away from the observer. This sends it sideways across the face of the shield to the left and right.
From the observer’s perspective, background light is effectively smeared horizontally across the front face of the shield, over the area where the subject would ordinarily be seen.
Invisibility Shield Co. say, “The shields perform at their absolute best against uniform backgrounds such as foliage, grass, rendered walls, sand, sky, and asphalt. Backgrounds with defined horizontal lines work really well too and these can be natural features such as the horizon or man-made features like walls, rails, or painted lines.”
The company offers a small shield (31cm x 21cm) to hide ‘everyday items for £49 ($64) and a full-size 95cm x 65cm version that can hide a person for £299 ($390). Estimated delivery is December. Well, that could be Christmas sorted!
The team is funding on Kickstarter to ramp-up capacity and variety.