The idea of an invisibility cloak has long fascinated the human mind, and so far, these have only appeared in fantasy and science fiction settings. So far, all the experiments concerning such “invisibility cloaks” play around on the same concept – to curve light that comes from behind an object around it, where said light will continue making its way to the viewer. This means the person will be able to see what is behind the object instead of the object itself. How about applying a similar principle to sound waves? That is exactly what scientists from Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have done, making this possibly the first “silence cloak” in the world.
Experiments have shown that the “silence cloak” would make it seem as though nothing was there, as sound waves are not absorbed nor reflected. So far, initial results have been encouraging and have reached a small scale proof-of-concept exitence, but whether it can be translated to the real world on a large scale, shielding humans in a “cloaked” area from loud background noises, remains to be seen, as there is surely plenty of work left to be done. Surely when achieved, this might force some of us to ask, “What kind of sorcery is this?”
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