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David Smith (left) and David Schurig holding a piece of the metamaterial with a model of their device projected in the background

On This Day: October 19, 2006

Invisibility Cloak Revealed

On October 19, 2006, Duke engineering professor David Smith and his postdoc David Schurig unveiled the world’s first “invisibility cloak.”

Their cylindrical device, which was made of metamaterials, worked by ferrying microwaves around an object as if it weren’t there.

A “Harry Potter”-like invisibility cloak that can hide objects from visible light and make them vanish from sight is still the stuff of science fiction, Smith said.

But their approach could potentially be used to hide objects from radar and mobile phone frequencies, representing a first step toward showing that real-life invisibility cloaks are feasible.

Their results were published online in the journal Science.