科学家发明哈里•波特隐身斗篷

Hats off to scientists in New York, who have managed to produce a cheap ‘invisibility cloak’ effect using readily available materials and a lot of clever thinking. Through a combination of optical lenses, any object that passes behind a certain line of sight can be made to disappear from view.

让我们向纽约的科学家们脱帽致敬吧。他们用富于奇思妙想的头脑，通过日常的既有材料制造出了低成本的“隐身斗篷”效果。通过一个各种凸透镜组装起来的装置，在特定的视角下，任何物体都可以从观察者的眼前消失。

“People have been fascinated with cloaking for a very long time,” said John Howell, a Professor of Physics. “It’s recently been a really popular thing in science fiction and Harry Potter… I think people are really excited about the prospect of just being invisible.”

“长久以来，人们一直对隐身术非常着迷。”物理学教授约翰·霍威尔说,“近年来，在科幻小说和《哈里·波特》系列里经常出现隐身术……我想，人们会对未来能够隐形的设想感到非常兴奋。”

“From what we know this is the first cloaking device that provides three-dimensional, continuously multidirectional cloaking. I imagine this could be used to cloak a trailer on the back of a semi-truck so the driver can see directly behind him. It can be used for surgery, in the military, in interior design, art.”

“就我们所知来看，这是世界上第一件能使人三维立体的，持续的，多个方向上隐藏身型的隐身斗篷。我想，这种装置可以使用在半卡车的拖车上，这样驾驶员就能直接看到他车后的路况了。它还可以用于医疗用途，军事用途，用于室内设计和艺术领域等等。”

What makes this system so interesting is that it’s simple, inexpensive and capable of working at multiple angles, as long as the object remains inside the series of lenses. It cost the scientists $1,000 to get all of the necessary equipment together, but it can be done more cheaply. A patent is pending for their invention but the scientists have put together instructions on making your own Rochester Cloak at home for less than $100.

这种装置最吸引人的地方在于，它构造简单、成本低廉，能够在多个视角下起作用，只要被观察的物体保持在这种凸透镜组装装置的视域之内。科学家们花费了一千元美金来凑齐所有必需的装置，但是它的制造成本可以大幅降低。这种发明是否能申请专利还悬而未决，不过，科学家们已经写出了使用说明书，让你花上不到100美元的费用，就能够在自己家里做出一个隐身斗篷。”