科學家發明哈里波特隱身斗篷

Hats off to scientists in New York, who have managed to produce a cheap ‘invisibility cloak’ effect using readily available materials and a lot of clever thinking. Through a combination of optical lenses, any object that passes behind a certain line of sight can be made to disappear from view.

讓我們向紐約的科學家們脫帽致敬吧。他們用富於奇思妙想的頭腦，通過日常的既有材料製造出了低成本的“隱身斗篷”效果。通過一個各種凸透鏡組裝起來的裝置，在特定的視角下，任何物體都可以從觀察者的眼前消失。

“People have been fascinated with cloaking for a very long time,” said John Howell, a Professor of Physics. “It’s recently been a really popular thing in science fiction and Harry Potter… I think people are really excited about the prospect of just being invisible.”

“長久以來，人們一直對隱身術非常着迷。”物理學教授約翰·霍威爾說,“近年來，在科幻小說和《哈里·波特》系列裏經常出現隱身術……我想，人們會對未來能夠隱形的設想感到非常興奮。”

“From what we know this is the first cloaking device that provides three-dimensional, continuously multidirectional cloaking. I imagine this could be used to cloak a trailer on the back of a semi-truck so the driver can see directly behind him. It can be used for surgery, in the military, in interior design, art.”

“就我們所知來看，這是世界上第一件能使人三維立體的，持續的，多個方向上隱藏身型的隱身斗篷。我想，這種裝置可以使用在半卡車的拖車上，這樣駕駛員就能直接看到他車後的路況了。它還可以用於醫療用途，軍事用途，用於室內設計和藝術領域等等。”

What makes this system so interesting is that it’s simple, inexpensive and capable of working at multiple angles, as long as the object remains inside the series of lenses. It cost the scientists $1,000 to get all of the necessary equipment together, but it can be done more cheaply. A patent is pending for their invention but the scientists have put together instructions on making your own Rochester Cloak at home for less than $100.

這種裝置最吸引人的地方在於，它構造簡單、成本低廉，能夠在多個視角下起作用，只要被觀察的物體保持在這種凸透鏡組裝裝置的視域之內。科學家們花費了一千元美金來湊齊所有必需的裝置，但是它的製造成本可以大幅降低。這種發明是否能申請專利還懸而未決，不過，科學家們已經寫出了使用說明書，讓你花上不到100美元的費用，就能夠在自己家裏做出一個隱身斗篷。”