Changespotting: Real-life invisibility cloak
5:30 AM Thursday Aug 11, 2011Who would have guessed that the end of the Harry Potter franchise would have coincided with researchers unveiling a promising real-life example of an invisibility cloak? The cloaking technology developed by researchers at UC University may not be able to conceal a person, but at the moment it can hide an object 0.000024 inches wide by 0.000012 inches high from all forms of visible light.
An organisation called GrowNYC has taken advantage of the space available on a stalled construction site in New York and developed a 15,000 square foot vegetable farm. Produce from the farm is then sold to the Riverpark restaurant on the site. Instead of letting the area languish, the farm is sporting 6,000 plants and supplies the restaurant with abundant, fresh and seasonal vegetables for diners to enjoy.
The idea of a world in which we all have a robot companion is no longer science-fiction, but before society adapts to the new technology, robots might struggle to function in a human-oriented world. It is for this reason that Diego Trujillo-Pisanty from the London Royal College of Art believes robot-friendly designs will become commonplace in the future. For example, QR-type codes will begin appearing on surfaces around the home, cupboard doors will be removed for easier access and other spatial cues may emerge in time.