Scientists announce invisibility “time cloak”

Invisibility time cloak was developed to hide data sent through optical transmission.

10:01 10 June 2013

Scientists have announced the development of a time cloak designed to manipulate the speed of light in optical fibres to hide communication or interaction that takes place during “hole in time.”

 

The study, which was published in the journal Nature, shows that time cloak is not similar to “invisibility cloaks” as it was designed to hide events in time rather than spatial objects. 

 

Prof Weiner explained how it works by saying, as reported by the BBC: “Think about taking a region of that river and pushing some of it forward, and some backwards so there are holes where there isn't any water. Maybe there's a dam, and we can pop the dam on and off very quickly, to somehow disturb or divert the water.

 

“If we part the water so it doesn't see the dam popping up and down, it isn't disturbed, and afterwards we can put the water back together so it looks like a nice calm river again. 

 

“That's how we control the flow of the light. We're pushing it forward and backwards in time, so it avoids events that would otherwise disturb it.”

 

The research reportedly could perhaps make data more tamper proof making it very useful to governments and large firms that handle sensitive information.