Invisibility shields are becoming more common and closer to being fully functional.

From HG Wells’ invisibility potion to Harry Potter’s cape, human beings have dreamed for centuries of disappearing. Until now it was just a fantasy, but little by little it is becoming a reality.

Three years ago, we introduced the first invisibility shield from Canadian company Hyperstealth Corporation. Now he has perfected it to make it more real and more “transparent”.

This shield uses a material called Quantum Stealth, What it makes everything behind it invisible. It’s not perfect, as it blurs the background a bit and you need the object to be hidden right in the middle of the invisibility shield, but it really works. You can see it in this video:

The big advantage of Quantum Stealth is that does not require any type of energy, It is the very material with which it is made that makes invisible what is just behindbut not the farthest bottom.

How does this invisibility panel work? Based on classic lenticular lenses. Surely you have already seen the 3D effect that some book covers have, or some DVD or Blu-ray film covers, which generate a 3D image if you look at it from the front, and it becomes flat if you see it from the side .

East invisibility shield modifies the light according to the parameters of the Snell’s Lawwhich calculates the angle of refraction of light as it crosses the interface between two media.

Every object has an index of refraction of light, and we see it differently if the light passes through air or another medium such as water. This is an effect that is easy to verify: if you put a spoon in a glass full of water, you see the bent spoon. In addition, its shape changes depending on where you look.

Hyperstealth leveraged all of these concepts to create a material that bends light and allows you to create blind spots at a certain distance from the invisibility shield. This is why it makes invisible what is very close to the shield, but not what is further away.

It’s not the only company working on this technology. Invisibility Shield presented another invisibility panel a few months ago that works in a very similar way, although it is even more perfect. You can see it here:

Also, it’s for sale. on Kickstarter. A small shield of 30 x 20 cm to hide objects costs around 57 euros, while a shield to hide a person, 95 by 65 cm, goes up to 350 euros.

It’s not a perfect solution, but it has its applications in military camouflage, scientific studies of wild animals, privacy, and more.