Sunday, May 29, 2011

Invisibility Technology - Future

The future of invisibility technology looks promising, perhaps we will one day be able to make a person completely invisible.
But will this be a good thing? Or cause more harm than good?
You can decide…



Saturday, May 28, 2011

Invisibility Technology - Bibliography

Bibliography

http://science.howstuffworks.com/invisibility-cloak.htm

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16527-video-revealing-the-technology-of-invisibility.html

http://www.physorg.com/news111414146.html

http://www.psfk.com/2009/02/uses-for-in-development-invisibility-technology.html

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070503100813.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hussenzILMv

Invisibility Technology - How It Works

It is believed that in October 2007, a military base in England, scientist and officers has gathered to test out the first ever, invisible challenger tank. The challenger tank is nearly the size of a small house.
Scientists think this was done with a combination of cameras, mirrors, reflectors and projectors reflecting the countryside onto the tank. The thinking is that the tank was coated in silicon, turning the tank into a highly reflective movie screen.

Our sight works by light bouncing off objects. We can only see a person because the light bounces off them and into our eyes, but if we can control light to bend backwards or around the person, they will appear invisible.

Scientists at Duke University have managed to create a material, which could achieve almost true invisibility. This simple looking material is called a metamaterial, a composite material that could be used to bend microwaves around an object. This metamaterial is created by taking a fibreglass base, and attaching on top of it a thin layer of copper, which had been sculpted into small ring shaped circles.










At the University of California, a professor and his colleagues successfully created a set of metamaterial’s that could bend light at optical frequencies, that is light we can actually see. This metamaterial is thicker than the material designed at Duke University, but is still one-tenth the thickness of paper. It features a fishnet pattern of holes and with this material; professor John has made microscopic objects truly invisible.







Professor Tachi in Japan has recently created a fully sized invisibility cloak. Rather than using metmaterial’s, he has used cameras and projectors to create the illusion of invisibility. As a result, anyone standing in front of the camera and wearing the invisibility cloak will seem invisible.
The cloak is made of retro reflective material, and is comprised of tiny beads, each with a diameter of about 50 micrometers.



























Once a person puts on the invisibility cloak, a series of split second commands are set in motion. First a digital video camera captures the scene behind the person wearing the cloak, then the computer processes the image and shines it onto the combiner, next the silver part of the mirror shines the image towards the person wearing the cloak and the cloak acts like a movie screen reflecting light directly back to the mirror, lastly the light rays bouncing off the cloak pass through the transparent part of the mirror and back to the user, making the person wearing the cloak seem invisible.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Augmented Reality - Project One - History

I have continued to do research on my Augmented Reality assignment throughout the week.
Here is some information I found on the history of invisibility technology.
The following information has been typed by me and is included in a .pdf I will be placing into drop box and providing a link to the file.

History of Invisibility Technology

Ever since humans have used stealth, we have been on a quest to become invisible. The idea of being invisible stretches back centuries, before today’s technology existed. Histories greatest assassins could make themselves disappear, without really disappearing.

These assassins were called ninjas, and began developing the art of invisibility as far back as the 6th century. Ninjas used their ability to hide in the blind spots of human sight in order to assassinate their targets.




Ninjas are able to exploit weaknesses in the human eye. The normal field of vision in each eye extends to 60 degrees ahead, and peripherally up to 100 degrees outward, but when we focus on something, the brain moves the centre of vision toward that area of interest, shrinking the overall field of vision to as little as 6 degrees and making us blind to most of our surroundings.

A ninja would wait until the time when their victim would focus their gaze on something, leaving them blind to their surroundings and giving the ninja that split second to attack.











This was an early way to achieve invisibility. 500 years later the British became closer to achieving true invisibility, with Deception Camouflage. In 1942, during World War 2, Winston Churchhill managed to make the Suez Canal and the Port of Alexandria appear invisible from the skies.

They did this by constructing a fake harbour 3 miles away from the Port of Alexandria. The fake harbour even included a fake lighthouse, fake buildings and fake anti air guns with light flashes to simulate gunfire. They then blacked out the real Port of Alexandria and light up the fake harbour in order to trick the Germans into bombing the false target.

During World War 2, the Americans also allegedly carried out an invisibility experiment. Codenamed Project Rainbow, the experiment would come to be known as the Philadelphia Experiment. The Philadelphia Experiment was an investigation into Albert Einstein’s theory on how to somehow create an electro magnetic envelope around a ship in order to make it radar invisible.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Podcast - File Sharing - Continued

Here I am once again, posting about my podcast.

As you already know, the podcast is covering the theme of file sharing. We were given the opportunity to present our 10 minute podcast today in order to earn an extra 10%. I however, was not ready and will not be earning that extra mark. My main reason for this is I am very time poor as of late.
Work, family issues and assignments have caused me to miss out on this extra mark. I am very disappointed, because who doesn't want an extra 10%?
I will be ready to present my podcast when it is due this coming week though. I have completed my transcript, now I have to finish animating.
My podcast will be animated with a collection of still images. I saw this style of pod casting in the video series 'The Escapist'. The Escapist is a series of game reviews, and I really enjoyed the way it was animated.
I have begun animating, now I only have to finish it off, which won't take too long.

When it is finished I will upload it onto the internet, either onto dropbox or into here if it will fit.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Augmented Reality Continued

Today I have conducted extensive research into my Augmented Reality project.

I have watched a 5 part show on Youtube entitled: That's Impossible: Invisibility Cloaks.
This 5 part movie gave me a lot of information on Invisibility Technology, that i didn't have before. I have been working on my document, to be submitted as a .pdf. Today I focused around the history of Invisibility Technology and modern invisibility technology.

Here is a link to part 1 of the Youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hussenzILM&feature=related

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Filesharng - Podcast

Podcast
For this assessment I chose to explore the topic of file sharing and the increasing affect it has had on different industries.

My podcast will cover what file sharing is, and the affect it has had on different industries. I am not going to explore this topic from an objective point of view, but rather a subjective point of view. I will be stating that while file sharing is legal, a lot of the information and files shared are not.

My main source of research will be from Internet sites and videos that explore the subject of file sharing.


Below is a simple time line of the project