Re:Canadian camouflage company claims to have created perfec...
by zennova on Friday December 14, 2012 @11:14AM
(#4921598)
There is a mock-up caption under originally posted photo:
"This is mock-up of our "Quantum Stealth" (Light Bending) material with my assistant behind it. No cameras and no projectors are used. These photos are to show the Media the concept, for security issues we can not show the actual technology. With the real material - you would only see about 5% of the shadow on her and the ground as we've determined a 95% reduction of shadow in testing."
What we "see" is just visible light reflected off of objects. If the blanket were "bending light" around a subject, the blanket would have to create some sort of light envelope, around which light would be passed to background objects, then reflected back to the viewer. Some of the scenarios presented in the photos would violate this principle.
Take the first photo for example:
http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/hypers...
Circling back to this concept of a "light envelope". The concealed person would have to ramain within this envelope in order to be concealed, otherwise, their light would be reflected back to the viewer, just like the background. In this photo, two things are a problem:
1) The edges of the blanket taper inward toward the concealed person so that there is no "extra" material beyond the concealed person. That would have to place the person outside any possible "envelope" behind the material.
2) The material casts a dark shadow. If the material were really bending light around the concealed person, the area behind the blanket (with the exception of the envelope area) would be well lit by the light that was bent around the concealed area.
To understand what I mean by an "envelope", have a look at the last photo:
http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/HBC-Qu...
If you were looking from the top down, the envelope would (probably) be a (roughly) triangular prism shaped area in the middle of the blanket where the person is standing. I would consider this photo plausible, but remain highly skeptical. However, the presence of the obvious fakes really discredits the claimant in this case.