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A Canadian camouflage company called Hyperstealth Biotechnology Corp. has developed the technology for a material that bends light in a way to render objects nearly invisible. The company, based out of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, specializes in camouflage and stealth technologies, as well as solar panels and holographic displays.
Currently in the prototyping phase, the new material is called “Quantum Stealth” and was created primarily for military purposes. Along with making objects close to invisible in the visible spectrum, the material can also bend in the Ultraviolet, Infrared and Shortwave Infrared while it blocks the Thermal Spectrum.
Also known as the “Invisibility Cloak”, it requires no power source, is paper-thin and inexpensive. According to the company, the material could be used to hide people, vehicles, ships, spacecraft and even buildings. Furthermore, Quantum Stealth can work in any environment, season, or time of day, unlike traditional camouflage materials.
The effect of invisibility is made possible through a lenticular lens, which is a corrugated sheet in which each ridge is made up of an outward curving lens. When numerous lenticular sheets with different lens distributions are layered in a particular way, they refract light at different angles to create “dead spots”, according to Dezeen.
Light is blocked, concealing the object behind, while the background remains unchanged. However, this means that whatever is meant to be hidden must be set at a certain distance away from the material in order to be completely invisible. The patent for Quantum Stealth includes thirteen different versions of the material, which are meant to conceal various sized objects.
Aside from military uses, the Hyperstealth claims the material could be used to triple the energy output of solar panels because of their large reflective surface area. Keep following Architizer for future updates to see just how far the invisibility cloak can develop, and how it might be applied to architecture the future.
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All images via Hyperstealth Biotechnology Corp.
