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The Military Government Patents United States

'Hyperstealth' Invisibility Cloak Developed For Military Use (futurism.com) 113

Posted by BeauHD from the non-fictional-devices-that-were-once-fictional dept.
Freshly Exhumed shares a report from Futurism: Canada's Hyperstealth Biotechnology already manufactures camouflage uniforms for militaries across the globe. But now, the company has patented a new "Quantum Stealth" material that disguises a military's soldiers -- or even its tanks, aircraft, and ships -- by making anything behind it seem invisible. Earlier in October, Hyperstealth filed a patent for the material, which doesn't require a power source and is both paper-thin and inexpensive -- all traits that could make it appealing for use on the battlefield. Alongside the news of the patent application, Hyperstealth released more than 100-minutes worth of footage describing and demonstrating the material.
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'Hyperstealth' Invisibility Cloak Developed For Military Use More

'Hyperstealth' Invisibility Cloak Developed For Military Use

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  • Nothing to see here... (Score:4, Funny)

    by David Taylor ( 2884363 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @05:17AM (#59338282)
    Hmm, what's this giant translucent sheet on the battlefield? Well, it looks a little obscured but surely there's nothing behind it.

  • Already been done (Score:5, Funny)

    by Matt Smith ( 4141495 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @05:18AM (#59338286)
    It doesn't require a power source and anything behind it is invisible? They've just patented a tree.

    • Re:Already been done (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Errol backfiring ( 1280012 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @07:04AM (#59338492) Journal
      Or a field of hemp or maize. Both crops grow quite tall and as an extra, absorb heat pretty well. The American Army used the Hemp fields in Afghanistan to camouflage their tanks quite effectively.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward

        The American Army used the Hemp fields in Afghanistan to camouflage their tanks quite effectively.

        You think that's what they were doing? Then why were they sending smoke signals? O:-)

      • Re:Already been done (Score:5, Funny)

        by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @08:01AM (#59338622)

        Yeah. That's totally why we are sitting in here, dude.

        What you see there is our smoke screen, by the way.

        Got any spare MREs?

  • Fresnel (Score:5, Insightful)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @05:19AM (#59338288)

    Fresnel called and asked for his lens back if we are going to use it like this.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/black... [reddit.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      How useful is it for military applications anyway? Aren't most weapons guided by things other than visible light these days?

      • Re:Fresnel (Score:4, Informative)

        by LatencyKills ( 1213908 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @07:46AM (#59338582)
        Depending on what it's made of, the Fresnel lens will work for other wavelengths as well. The key however is that the lens bends off axis light rays into the nominal path with two huge caveats. One, for objects that subtend a large angular space behind the lens (either because they are close or the object is large), rays collected at high off axis angles will contain object information (i.e. the lens won't effectively hide the object behind it) - this is why all of the videos have objects that are small and/or some distance behind the lens. Two, this is ultimately a lens, so it has some thickness and curvature - it's not like this technology could be coated onto clothing or painted directly onto the surface of an object - it won't work.

      • The weapons are not guided by light. But the person choosing the target is.
        Drones, Aircraft, Satellite...

           

      • The demo video shows concealment in visible light, UV, long, short, and thermal IR.
      • Most projectiles tend to be guided by the barrel of the rifle the soldier fires. Those bullets don't correct trajectory, and the optics on the rifle are used to define that trajectory.

    • J.J. Abrams called and wants his lens flares back...

      I am surprised there wasn't any star wipes in those videos...

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by fazig ( 2909523 )
      To me it looks more like it's based on lenticular lenses, which is also what they have in that reddit post.
      The idea is not new at all and has been extensively used in "Wackelbilder" throughout the 80's and 90's. I am not sure what the proper English name for that is. But you probably have seen those small pictures with a plastic sheet over them. When you flip them one angle you see one picture, if you flip them another angle you see something different, often used to give the pictures the illusion of motio

  • "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", Arthur C. Clarke.

    This is insane. This guy deserves the Nobel prize at least something similar.

  • And this tech is showing real results .. I'm surprised the military let it lose.

  • Military use? Oh noes!

    And here I would have thought it would be developed for ... I dunno, selfies without the self in them?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Shaitan ( 22585 )

      Overengineered solution for the cameras they are building into everything these days.

    • Re:Military use? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Shaitan ( 22585 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @09:02AM (#59338782)

      Actually seems like it would have promise as a shower curtain replacement.

      • Hah, that was my first thought as well.

        Blocks shapes, but lets all the light through, it's better than the standard "frosted" vinyl curtains, that's for sure.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Shaitan ( 22585 )

          Yup, seems like even when you get too close and you can see through it is no worse than frosted glass

    • Personally, I want to buy this stuff to put in front of LED strip lights to merge all the little dots of light into a nice solid line. It looks like this would work better than any of the diffusers currently on the market.

  • Will be hilarious to see the nutjobs that shop in army surplus stores walking around with invisible legs, or possibly not seeing them at all!
  • It's blurry plastic sheeting. Nothing "quantum" about it.

  • Why can you still see the chair rail behind the film? Does it not make chair rail invisible?

    • It probably is just another light diffuser sheet and the grooves run horizontally. Looks cool though, but I'm not sure how it differs from anything else.

      • One good use for it is properly disguising vehicles or a lack thereof in open vehicle bays. The bay will appear empty even if it's not. Back in the day you couldn't deceive to that extent with a matte painting as it would be obvious with a few viewings that it was a matte painting - like at different times of the day, the lighting would show it to be a painting of the area. This material will change what is being shown as the light to the area changes, making it much more effective for camouflage. It's

    • He says in the first 5 minutes that vertical objects are hidden and it will let horizontal patterns through. the top of the rail is too close to the material, but the bottom was placed 8 inches from it and is effectively invisible. notice too that the outlets on the wall disappear as well.

      Seems like (i'm over simplifying) a polarized Fresnel lens. think like a fun house mirror, you can distort a particular direction, possibly to the point of making a vertical object thin enough to be un-observable.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        and it will let horizontal patterns through

        Horizontal patterns. Like tanks, planes, ships, etc. And marines not sleeping standing at attention.

    • The lens is distorting the "background" but it isn't noticeable with the chair rail because the rail extends horizontally across the entire field of view. I would like to see a test with a more complex background.

  • tower this is ghost rider requesting a flyby

  • if they demonstrated camouflage clothing or making something akin to Wonder Woman's invisible plane.

    Everything shown here had the "material" placed in a meter or so in front or above the object and was rigid.

    As a kid, I had a large fresnel lens that demonstrated similar behavior. If they showed this wrapped around an object, like a crash test dummy (or a living person), a car, or even a model aircraft, I'd be more apt to believe they may be on to something.

    For now, it's intriguing but not a national asset

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rei ( 128717 )

      ... they do show it wrapped around objects. I guess you didn't watch far enough into the (terribly made) video?

      They also have two different variants, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.

      It's clearly no "sci-fi invisibility cloak". But it's honestly IMHO better than I expected - especially after seeing how terrible the quality on the site and video was.

    • 14:50 in the video
    • sigh. patents are routinely given for thing invented long before if the claim isnt already in the patent database under a term associated with the new claim then the patent examiner who has only a few hours to do a search will grant the patent. rarely does a examiner have the time to search beyond the patent database so thing that were obviously in use for decades and never patented suddenly get patented. need far far more patent examiners and far far easier methods to dispute undeserving patents.

  • scout: hey there is this large sheet with probably like a tank behind it
    cmdr: k lets just bomb the whole area

    • Oh it was just a decoy. Lets go to the next area. Oh look a big army, and we are out of bombs.

    • This would be better than the camoflauge netting they currently use to hide from satellites/aerial recon.

  • Not sure if this is vapourware or if they are hiding behind their products.

    But yeah, looks like a fresnel lens. Not suspicious at all if you fly over it and you can notice the change..

    • To be fair, it isn't about hiding the fact that something is there, it is about hiding the nature of the thing that is there.

      In one of the videos, a sheet is draped over a model of a tank with halogen lights overhead pointing down at it.

      From above, it is clear that something is there, but you cannot see any shadows to give away what is below the sheet.

  • It is a Fresnel lens on a single axis. It has to be far enough away from the object so the angle it is diffracting it by shows the image from next to it. Plus the object needs to be narrow enough to have the image diffracted completely from each side.

    So I guess those "changing image" pictures (like in a happy meal) where you move your head side-to-side to change the picture are "Quantum image changers"!
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • I can't wait to "see" it!!!

  • Be careful where you stand behind this thing in relation to the sun.
  • Back in the 60s through 80s, we had MAD( mutually assured destruction). It kept the world from repeating Cuban missile crisis. It depended on ability to not have a 2nd strike, as well as both sides having enough time to respond. As such, America knew what Soviets had and vc/vrsa. Why? Because we pretty much allowed spies to see certain programs, but also because any attack would be in the open. These days, Russia/China are working on missiles and torpedoes that stay hidden for weeks/months, and now America

  • Pretty cool (Score:5, Informative)

    by ElizabethGreene ( 1185405 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @09:24AM (#59338856)

    I just watched the entire demo video and I don't understand the grumbling in the comments here. It's extremely cool stuff.

    • I think everyone wants magic invisibility. It seems like most things, it's been hyperbolically sold but I'm sure there are some specific applications (certain windows?), etc - where this might be very useful.

      Cool and lame at the same time.

    • I completely agree! I normally get super annoyed when people claim they've invented invisibility cloaks or even spacetime cloaks when a cardboard box does the same thing. But, if you just ignore the name as marketing (there's nothing "quantum" about it) it is really cool.

      Just watch the video at 10:08. The "tube" sure is blurry and doesn't look natural at all but it also looks really empty. I was positively surprised for once! I'm not sure it will find applications but it is a cool presentation.
      https://vimeo [vimeo.com]

      • I skipped through the video so they may have shown this, but I suppose that the person behind the sheet has the same blurry view of the outside world. They would presumably use a camera to see the outside.

        • A camera would work, or later in the video he suggests perforating the sheet to provide a view outside. I think I prefer the camera option.

          If you want to take the video in 15 second increments, here are the timestamps for the high points.

          1:10 Visible light, interior environment
          3:20 NVG IR
          4:25 Riot Shield, complex interior environment
          5:15 NVG UV
          10:12 360 degree coverage
          14:50 V1 vs V2 material, hiding a hummer (30 seconds).

          https://vimeo.com/356973482 [vimeo.com]

    • Watched the video?! You realize that is equivalent to having RTFA, right? Please turn in your Slashdot card on the way out.

    • I agree absolutely, Slashdot has become a techish-hipster smartarse comment forum, with little consideration for the actual value (or not) of the content.

      This really is very interesting. It would be most interesting to know the mechanics and limitations of it.

    • The stuff is really cool, yes! I want to buy it to use as a light diffuser for LED lights right now, and I think it would be neat as privacy film or to reduce glare from a skylight.

      Most of the military uses are a bit silly, though. If you can hide stuff behind a big shiny fence or under a big shiny tent, you can hide those things just as well behind an opaque fence or under an opaque tent, made of materials that are cheaper and already available - plus you won't become visible to snipers when you accidental

  • ...it's a giant fancy lens that refracts light around whatever is in the focal point behind it?

    Doesn't seem particularly useful, and makes things about "invisible" as my shower door does.

  • What exactly were you expecting here? Predator movie tech? If that exists the government definitely isn't going to be posting articles about it. Yeesh.

  • But now, the company has patented a new "Quantum Stealth" material

    I question anyone using the word 'Quantum' to describe a device that does NOT work at a quantum level.

    ... that disguises a military's soldiers -- or even its tanks, aircraft, and ships -- by making anything behind it seem invisible.

    Wouldn't it make more sense to make the soldier/tank/ship invisible, rather than the objects behind it?

  • New technology for obsolete war. Guys. Repeat after me: this is the 21st century. War is obsolete. War only seems like an option to the psychopaths and criminals, full stop. Money spent on war is theft. Acts of war are criminal. Humanity demands diplomacy and international justice, not nation/deep-state war.
  • looks like the plastic film that covers 3d photos. the lens allows alternating stripes of a striped photo to be directed to each different eye so you see 3d. it forward focuses the lmage directly behind the film. flip that film around and you basically have this as anyone who has peeled it off a 3d photo knows. this film sends images from either side of the cloaked object and in the deep background focal plane to the forefront while defocusing anything closer to it unless it is touching the film. it cert
  • if they actually filed a patent APPLICATION in october then there is time to submit prior art such as fresnel lenses to the patent examiner and stop this patent.

  • Wasn't this invented back in the 1950s?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • I guess it would make for a decent shower curtain for shy women.

  • It blocks the light from both sides, so a soldier using it as a portable shied cannot see out. Thus the paradox of the "Invisible Man".... if your body invisible to light detectable by human eyes, how do your eyes detect light so you can see your surroundings?

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