The 'ghost cape' that could make fighter jets look like passenger planes

• Groundbreaking technology can make an object appear to be something else
• Technology could be used  to make a jet fighter appear to be a passenger plane, or a soldier appear to be  a tree
• Researchers say the  technique is far simpler than current 'cloaking' devices

PUBLISHED:21:36 GMT, 22  January 2013| UPDATED:09:23 GMT, 23 January 2013

Chinese researchers have revealed a 'ghost  cape' that can make one object appear to look like another.

The team from Southeast  University in Nanjing, China say their technique is far simpler that other  invisibility devices, because instead of making an object disappear entirely, it  makes it look like something else.

The technique scatters  incoming light to create two 'ghost' images either side of the cloaked  object

'The creation of wave-dynamic illusion  functionality is of great interests to various scientific communities,' the  researchers led by Tie Jun Cui at Southeast University in Nanjing, China,  say.

They say their research could have  'unprecedented applications in the advanced-material science, camouflage,  cloaking, optical and/or microwave cognition, and defense security, etc.'

The team has already built a prototype device  to show off their theory.

Depending on the construction of the  cloaking device, the shape and other properties of the ghost images can be  altered.

'By using the space transformation theory and  engineering capability of metamaterials, we propose and realize a functional  'ghost' illusion device, which is capable of creating wavedynamic virtual ghost  images off the original object’s position under  the illumination of  electromagnetic waves,' they say.

FULL STORY: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2266668/The-bizarre-...