A Promising Future for an Invisible Man

The concept of a man becoming invisible was introduced by H.G. Wells over one hundred years ago. Through the years, science fiction has often used the idea of a fantasy cloaking device to provide object invisibility. In fact, it is a term that has become so common that it is found in the Star Trek Encyclopedia.

The Star Trek definition is “an energy screen generator used to render an object (typically, a starship) invisible to the eye and to most sensor systems. In recent fiction , Harry Potter used invisibility to his advantage to conquer the forces of evil in Hogwarts through the use of a cloaking device that he inherited from his father.

However, nobody has a device that can make things invisible in the real world today. It only exists in the creative mind and it still is only a Hollywood fantasy story line. Still, the day of making objects appear invisible may not be all that far away.

Consider that Liverpool mathematician Dr Sébastien Guenneau, together with Dr Frédéric Zolla and Professors André Nicolet from the University of Marseille, have proven, using a specially designed computer model called GETDP, that objects can be made to appear invisible from close range when light travels in waves rather than beams.

Dr Guenneau, at the University’s Department of Mathematical Science, explains: “The shape and structure of airplanes make them ideal objects for cloaking, as they have a fixed structure and movement pattern. Human beings and animals would be more difficult as their movement is very flexible.”

According to recent articles in the world’s two leading scientific journals, Science and Nature, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, whose work is funded by the American military, have engineered materials that can control light’s direction of travel.

In fact, this material can bend visible light around objects. As a result of this breakthrough, light can be bent around an object and as a result, hide it. This breakthrough could lead to a device which would cloak anything from people to large military objects, such as tanks and ships, from the naked eye.

No such material occurs naturally and it is only in the past few years that nano-scale engineering, manipulating matter at the level of atoms and molecules, has advanced sufficiently to give scientists the chance to create them.

If you think making objects invisible is far fetched. Consider the words of Vladimir Shalaev, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and industry expert at Purdue University; “Cloaking is just the tip of the iceberg. With transformation optics you can do many other tricks, perhaps including making things appear to be located where they are not.”

Those science fiction episodes of Star Trek and Harry Potter will not look as far removed from reality to future generations of loyal fans as they have looked in the past to us. The real world is quickly catching up to science fiction. It may be a promising future for an invisible man but for many of us it is a most unsettling thought.

The truth is that soon we may not be able to see an object standing right in front of us but we could well see an object that looks like vivid reality but due to optical illusion is not. Indeed, what was once the effect caused by too much alcohol, will soon be called normal transformational optics on display in a nearby spot.

Smart Mems And Sensor Systems

Product Description
In recent years, MEMS have revolutionized the semiconductor industry, with sensors being a particularly buoyant sector. “Smart MEMS and Sensor Systems” presents readers with the means to understand, evaluate, appreciate and participate in the development of the field, from a unique systems perspective. The combination of MEMS and integrated intelligence has been put forward as a disruptive technology. The full potential of this technology is only evident when it is used to construct very large pervasive sensing systems. The book explores the many different technologies needed to build such systems and integrates knowledge from three different domains: MEMS technology, sensor system electronics and pervasive computing science. Throughout the book, a top-down design perspective is taken, be it for the development of a single smart sensor or that of adaptive ad-hoc networks of millions of sensors. For experts in any of the domains named above, the book provides the context for their MEMS based design work and an understanding of the role the other domains play. For the generalist (either in engineering or computing) or the technology manager, the underpinning knowledge is provided, which can inform specialist decision making.

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CMOS-MEMS: Advanced Micro and Nanosystems

Product Description
Microstructures, electronics, nanotechnology – these vast fields of research are growing together as the size gap narrows and many different materials are combined. Current research, engineering sucesses and newly commercialized products hint at the immense innovative potentials and future applications that open up once mankind controls shape and function from the atomic level right up to the visible world without any gaps.

Sensor systems, microreactors, nanostructures, nanomachines, functional surfaces, integrated optics, displays, communications technology, biochips, human/machine interfaces, prosthetics, miniaturized medical and surgery equipment and many more opportunities are being explored.

This new series, Advanced Micro and Nano Systems, provides cutting-edge reviews from top authors on technologies, devices and advanced systems from the micro and nano worlds.

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Enabling Technologies for MEMS and Nanodevices

Product Description
Microstructures, electronics, nanotechnology – these vast fields of research are growing together as the size gap narrows and many different materials are combined. Current research, engineering sucesses and newly commercialized products hint at the immense innovative potentials and future applications that open up once mankind controls shape and function from the atomic level right up to the visible world without any gaps.

Sensor systems, microreactors, nanostructures, nanomachines, functional surfaces, integrated optics, displays, communications technology, biochips, human/machine interfaces, prosthetics, miniaturized medical and surgery equipment and many more opportunities are being explored.

This new series, Advanced Micro & Nanosystems, provides cutting-edge reviews from top authors on technologies, devices and advanced systems from the micro and nano worlds.

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Functional Thin Films and Nanostructures for Sensors: Synthesis, Physics and Applications

Product Description

This book will discuss advances in the area of functional thin films for sensors and novel concepts for future breakthroughs. The focus will be on guidelines and design rules for sensor systems, interaction between functional thin films and other sensor subsystems, fundamentals behind the intrinsic functionality in sensing thin films and nanostructures, state-of-the-art technologies used to develop sensors today and concrete examples of sensor designs.

Coverage of nanoscale thin films for sensors includes the following important topics: Fundamental physics of functional thin films and nanostructures; Synthesis processes of functional thin films; Integration of functional thin films; Applications of functional thin films in sensing.

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