Cloaking devices for the physical world has been tested and dabbled with in the past, but Duke engineers have come up with something along the lines of cloaking, albeit it is not in a physical sense. They have managed to build what is deemed to be the world’s first 3D acoustic cloaking device. Just what kind of sorcery did they indulge in in order to create this wonder?
No toad skin as well as bear hair with a crow’s eye were thrown into a bubbling cauldron that is accompanied by mystical enhancements to get the job done. No sir, it is plain old science, where all that the engineers used were a few perforated sheets of plastic and plenty of number crunching, resulting in the first 3D acoustic cloak in the world. This particular device will be able to reroute sound waves in order to create an impression that the cloak as well as anything underneath it is not there.
I suppose we have seen the first of such a 3D acoustic cloak depicted in Metal Gear Solid for the PSOne, except that Solid Snake’s version was a cardboard box. This real world acoustic cloaking device, however, will function in all three dimensions, regardless of the direction that the sound is coming from or where the observer is located, where it could lead to very interesting applications down the road including sonar avoidance and architectural acoustics.
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