This is no magician’s act.
British start-up Invisibility Shield Co. has revealed that it has created a 6-foot-tall “Megashield” being sold for $828 — which they claim can make multiple people invisible, like something straight out of a “Harry Potter” film.
The shields utilize ultra-large, precision-engineered lens arrays, which form the face of each shield and redirect light that reflects off the person standing behind the shield, away from the observer.
Invisibility Shield Co. / SWNS
The shape and placement of these lenses then cause background light from either side of the shields to spread over the apparatus’ face and be directed toward the observer instead, effectively making whatever is behind disappear in plain sight.
However, the technology does not blend into its surroundings perfectly and does create a blurred block.
Each unit is fully waterproof, does not require any power and is constructed from 100% recyclable materials, according to the company.
“The possibilities are endless but most important of all, these shields are great fun. They’re fun to play around with and exciting for us to make,” Invisibility Shield designer Tristan Thompson told South West News Service.
Invisibility Shield Co. first released its product in 2022, advertising a full-size shield measuring 3 feet tall for $354 and a smaller version standing at 8 inches tall being sold for $54.
The team began crowdfunding on Kickstarter in hopes of “turning science fiction into reality” in 2022 and quickly surpassed their $6,600 goal expecting to ship to customers by the end of that year.
They updated the Kickstarter funder on Tuesday — four years after the initial launch — to announce the updated product.
The latest version of the invisibility shield can hide multiple people, stand on its own and be packed down to 2.3 inches of thickness, “allowing people to easily take them anywhere they want to disappear,” the company claimed.
“We wanted to see how far we could push this technology. A real working invisibility shield that you can just roll up and sling over your shoulder? Two years ago nobody thought anyone could do that,” Thompson said.