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THE INVISIBLE MAN
Inventor: Susumu Tachi, Masahiko Inami and Naoki Kawakami
Harry Potter isn't the only academic with an invisibility cloak. A professor at the University of Tokyo has created an optical camouflage system that makes anyone wearing a special reflective material seem to disappear. Here's how: a video camera records the real-life scenery behind the subject, transmits that image to a front-mounted projector, which then displays the scene on the reflective material. The system has obvious military applications and could also be used in airplane cockpits to make landings easier for pilots.
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THE NEW BLACK
Inventor: National Physical Laboratory
If you thought brown was the proverbial new black, think again.
Researchers at the National Physical Laboratory in Britain have developed a nickel-phosphorus compound called NPL Super Black that absorbs 99.65% of visible light.
Black paint absorbs only about 97.5% of visible light positively shiny by comparison. Not just cool, the new black is useful too.
Precision optical instruments depend on eliminating any and all stray reflected light to get their readings.
The blacker the black, the less reflected light, the better the data.
That makes NPL Super Black a pretty bright idea.
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