Developed by the Invisibility Shield Company, the Invisibility Shield 2.0 is an upgraded version of its previous invisibility shield, with even more convincing invisibility. The future is now! You probably couldn’t tell, but I’m typing this right in front of you from behind an Invisibility Shield 2.0. That chair across from you? That’s me. Well, technically, I’m in front of it, but behind an invisibility shield. I’d stand up and show myself too, but forgot to wear a shirt this morning.
The optical arrays we use to construct our shields are manufactured by extruding and then embossing a polymer to form sheets of elongate, convex lenses. In order for these sheets to manipulate light in the right way to create functional invisibility shields, the lenses must have a highly specific shape and each one must be formed with high precision as they are very small. We’ve spent years testing different lens shapes with varying profiles, angles, depths, focus points and separation distances.
The shields perform at their absolute best against uniform backgrounds such as foliage, grass, rendered walls, sand, sky and asphalt. Backgrounds with defined horizontal lines work extremely well too and these can be natural features such as the horizon or man made features like walls, rails or painted lines.
The Invisibility Shield works by directing light around objects directly behind it, so when you view the shield head-on, you see a slightly blurry version of objects in the far background, and the ones directly behind the shield appear invisible. If you’re interested in using one for your own magic tricks (and NOT bank robberies), the shields are currently available via funding the company’s Kickstarter, with a 40″ x 28″ shield going for $378 and a larger 72″ x 48″ for $883. Cool, but I need one that can hide my whole house. I owe my bookie a lot of money, and I really don’t want my knees to bend the other way.
[via LaughingSquid]
With over 17 years of writing experience, Jonathan has had a passion for all things tech-related, ever since watching Inspector Gadget as a child. He's disassembled countless appliances and managed to put a few back together, and one still works. When not writing, he can often be found playing video games or accidentally hurting himself in the garage.