Invisibility will become reality

In 2003, Japan succeeded in creating high-tech clothing that could make people invisible to others. However, it is only a part of the body that is made of high-tech devices, while the head and shoulders are the same. American scientists are making a more ambitious plan to make people completely invisible to your eyes!

Imagine a soldier kneeling in front of a statue: a part of his body is like a gravel on the wall. Five minutes later, he changed "color" because behind him was another background. In this situation, he is like casting with the scenery behind! The soldier wearing a uniform of color changes according to the surroundings!
Dr. Kemp returned to the couch. Just leaning back on his back, he felt like something was entering the room. Perhaps a wind, because he did not see anything unusual. But suddenly a voice rang out, from nowhere. It's scary! Then suddenly the chair in the corner of the house came running towards him, like a magic trick. And yet, the seat surface subsided as if someone were sitting on it. Finally, as in a mythological movie, a stick of wood placed in the distance flew up into the air and slipped into the fireplace!

Is Dr. Kemp stunned by drinking two glasses of English sherry? No, this is an invisible human film, produced in 1993, about a mysterious character created by writer Herbert George Wells at the end of the 19th century, a work of great success when adapted to film.

No need to rely on cinema, in the near future people can "stealth" thanks to the creativity that a group of American scientists are doing. Indeed, at Natick's military research center in Massachusetts (USA), researchers are enthralled with the project of producing high-tech apparel to help soldiers achieve the greatest success in combat. . For example, they study the "instant uniforms" that people can "cover" directly on soldiers, or in-country uniforms but are exposed on the ground, and the most unique is the uniform that turns people into invisible!

Here people do not use familiar techniques to help soldiers "bypass" sophisticated electronic detection systems. For example, the device prevents the body from emitting infrared rays, or materials - as used for stealth aircraft - not for radar "to stick" on. Natick's researchers turned to a system that made the enemy unable to see who wore the outfit! In comparison, this outfit is more advanced than disguise, because the latter will lose its effect once the background is changed. It is also from here that American scientists come up with the idea: to build a uniform whose color changes according to the surrounding environment! Imagine a soldier kneeling in front of a statue, a part of his body like the gravel on the wall. Five minutes later, he changed "color" because behind him was another background. In this situation, he is like casting with the scenery behind!

How does this strange outfit work? This is a long-term project within the framework of Future Warrior 2025, which seeks to find high-tech combat costumes for US soldiers over the next 20 years. Jerry Whitaker, Natick's chief information officer, said: " We are very proud of the progress made in camouflage. However, it is still too early to inform technical details ." In general, information about "invisible shirt" is still "invisible"!

It is hard to uncover the mystery of this secret, because it is known that the way American scientists are going: all within the framework of "smart clothing". In addition to body shading, this outfit also has a special use, such as a phone-jacket, which helps to transmit and receive sound (the receiving and transmitting unit hidden inside the shirt), or the towel film camera (camera disguised inside the towel) . No need to go to the US to explore these unique products, they were made in France, in the Grenoble region, where satellites of the Research and Development Institute of France Télécom. Here, scientists are studying a material that is considered the basis of American "invisible clothing": optical fiber. The group led by Grenoble by André Weill used this fiber to make a soft screen. Using fiber, a 64-cell chessboard was made, where all fibers were concentrated in one cell connected to a diode, meaning an ampoule used as a light source.

This light source was captured by the fiber and emitted outside. Thus, the "flag" changing strands that they assemble into a homogeneous region emit light at the same level. A pixel format, like the pixel of a television screen! It is the contrast of light between all the "chess pieces" that creates the image, and the temporal variation of this contrast allows for the creation of vivid images.

The model made by France Télécom is considered a prerequisite for "invisible shirt". If the shirt is the size of a small screen (30x30cm), this screen is only 64pixel, too little compared to the 1.024pixel screen that you usually see in the living room. But just multiply this pixel count so that one can make clarity increase. And so, despite the small size, this new screen can still transmit any image. The other problem is exaggerating the screen to finally get "invisible" effect.

Now imagine that the fibers are not only distributed on the surface that corresponds to the surface of the television, but also cover the entire uniform of soldiers. Therefore, the clothes became bright and the soldiers turned into a giant mobile screen, on which people no longer transmitted geometric images but were images of the surroundings through the cameras attached. regularly on the shirt.

These cameras record all the surrounding images continuously, transmitting the system's "black box" - containing memory and microprocessor circuits - on the outfit. In fact, this true laptop transmits information about the diodes that light up optical fibers. As a result, images of the environment often appear on the soldier's body: on his abdomen are bricks that the rear camera can spin, in front of the chest is a barbed wire fence . Finally the soldier returns So completely transparent! However, this theory still has many obstacles. André Weill explains: " Let's take our example of a screen model, it has a 3.5 volt battery that provides energy within 2 hours. If it is a screen covering the uniform, try asking. How much energy you have at that time the soldier has to carry countless batteries on you ! ". Next is the diode problem, the light source that the fiber is connected to. André Weill went on to say, " Our model needs 64 diodes, one diode per pixel, but to have an invisible costume one needs thousands of things. This makes the shirt become cumbersome and entangled. " .

But smart fiber research is only at an early stage, miniaturization of diodes and batteries will definitely achieve significant results. And to convince those who don't believe or don't think that someday people will use fiber-optic clothes, scientists suggest to retire a bit, in the early 20th century, to know be all. At that time people only knew natural fibers, wool, cotton, silk ., but in the 1930s, when people created nylon, then this synthetic fiber was everywhere. Who dares to say that fiber does not achieve the same success as nylon in the future?

Hong Van