Company develops ‘Invisibility Shield’

Every Harry Potter fan — whether of the literary saga, the films or both — has certainly dreamed of what they would do if they had the opportunity to have their own invisibility cloak. In the universe created by JK Rowling, Harry inherits the cloak, which is one of the three legendary Deathly Hallows, from his father, James Potter.

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Now, however, you don’t have to be a wizard to make this dream a reality. After all, for 699 pounds (around R$4,400) you can purchase the ‘invisibility shield’.

Developed by Invisibility Shield Co., the shield uses a precision-engineered set of lenses to bend light, making objects behind it virtually invisible. Furthermore, unlike the cape, the shield is large enough to hide several people.

The shield of invisibility

The initial idea for the product came from the London-based company in mid-2020. Since then, Invisibility Shield Co. has developed and tested several cloaking devices, before arriving at the latest design. The shield, which is now on sale, measures around two meters high by 1.5 meters wide, and is made of high-quality polycarbonate.

Using a precision-engineered set of lenses, light reflected from the person behind the shield is directed away from the person in front of them.

The lenses in this set are oriented so that the vertical band of light reflected from the standing/crouching subject becomes diffuse when spread out horizontally as it passes through the back of the shield,” Invisibility Shield Co. explained on its Kickstarter page.

“In contrast, the band of light reflected from the bottom is much wider, so when it passes through the back of the shield, much more light is refracted both through the shield and toward the observer… From the observer’s perspective, this light background is effectively spread horizontally across the front face of the shield, over the area where the object would normally be seen”, they continue.

According to the company, as reported by the Daily Mail, the shields are most effective against uniform backgrounds, including grass, foliage, sand and the sky. “Backgrounds with defined horizontal lines also work extremely well and can be natural features such as the skyline, or man-made features such as walls, railings or painted lines.”