Professor working on practical cloaking device

'Invisibility' two years away from University of St Andrews on Vimeo.

(PhysOrg.com) -- A physicist at the University of St Andrews hopes to make major advances in the 'tantalising' field of invisibility in the next two years. Professor Ulf Leonhardt, who cites the Invisible Woman and Harry Potter as sources of inspiration, is working on a blueprint for a practical cloaking device that could even protect coastlines from water waves.

Thanks to funding from the Royal Society's Theo Murphy Blue Skies award, Professor Leonhardt will be able to pursue full time for the next two years 'turning science fiction into a reality'.

The researcher, who describes his invisibility work as 'geometry, light and a wee bit of magic', is inspired by optical illusions, Arabia and the imagination of his children.

He said, "The idea of invisibility has fascinated people for millennia, inspiring many myths, novels and films. In 2006, I began my involvement in turning invisibility from fiction into science, and, over the next two years, I plan to develop ideas that may turn invisibility from frontier science into applicable technology."

"Technology is the modern form of magic; imagine your ancestor being transported into the future - they never thought it possible that people could fly or talk to others in different parts of the world. Fantastical, magical things are possible in principle; the question is whether you can turn them into practice, and that depends largely on ideas, which are even more essential than the development of new materials."

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