You know how a princess can feel a pea through 20 mattresses and 20 feather beds? Well, not any more. Researchers in Germany have created the first mechanical invisibility cloak. When this cloak is placed over an object, the object cannot be felt at all — either by your finger, or a more sensitive measuring device. This has obvious repercussions for the authentication of fairytale princesses, and also in the realm of camping (die, tree roots, die) and carpeting (cabling begone!) Personally, I hope someone takes this mechanical invisibility material and creates the world’s first sock that is immune to the terrifying strength of errant-in-the-night Lego bricks.
If you’ve been following ExtremeTech for a while, you’ll know that we’ve covered plenty of invisibility cloaks, all of wildly varying form and function. There have been some “conventional” cloaks that hide objects from visible light, but also lots that cloak against microwaves, sound waves, and various other forms of radiation. A mechanical invisibility cloak, however, is something new.
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