Story:
Incredible! An invisible fabric!
A fabric that makes one invisible, invented by a China-born scientist, is ranked as one of the ten greatest inventions of all time. He has thus been appointed to take office next year as a Hongkong University President.
Amazing!
Other Versions
A fabric that makes you invisible invented by a China-born scientist is ranked as one of the 10 greatest inventions.
He has been appointed to take office next year as HK university President.
An unbelievable feat, with dangerous potential for misuse…
Fact Check:
An interesting video went viral online purports to show an invisible fabric invented by a Chinese Scientist. It appears to show a man walking in a garden, disguising himself behind the invisibility cloak. The accompanying message also mentions appointment of the inventor as President of Hongkong University next year. Millions of viewers went on to believe in the’ invisible fabric’ video.But the claims are not true.
About the ‘Invisible Fabric’ Video
In the video, you can see that the alleged fabric blends into the background bushes completely – making the man invisible. The video went viral online in early December 2017 after sharing on Chinese social media by Mr. Chen Shiqu, who is the Deputy Head of Criminal Investigation Department, at Ministry of Public Security. Notably, he recommended the use of invisibility cloak in the military.
Invisible Clothing Not Real
As you look at the video carefully, you can observe there are few flaws in it. As you can see in the image below, at the timeframe of 57 seconds, when the man is wrapping the fabric in front of him, the bushes in the background. are visible. In the next image, around the time-frame 1:04, you can see the fingers of the man holding the fabric disappear. These are in fact signs of editing in the ‘invisible fabric’ video.
An article published on 8 Dec. 2017 by MailOnline website dailymail.co.uk revealed the truth about the video. Zhu Zhensong, producer at Quantum Video production company explained to the reporters the ‘invisible fabric’ video is a product of clever editing and filming with a blue or green plastic screen. Zhu also mentioned software like Adobe’s After Effects, Nuke or Blackmagic Fusion can help in editing the background and blend the object into it. So, the flaws in video suggest shooting of background first, followed by projection of image onto the screen. Thus giving an impression that the man disappears behind the invisibility cloak. Hence, the claims about a Chinese scientist inventing invisible fabric and his appointment as the President of Hongkong University are hoaxes.
Ultra-thin Invisibility Cloak
Although this invisibility cloak is not a reality, Xian Zhang and his team developed an Ultrathin Invisibility Cloak in 2015. It can wrap around 3D objects, concealing them by guiding the light, around the objects, thus creating an illusion of invisibility. Notably, this invisibility cloak was only microscopic in size, but scientists believe that the principles behind the technology can enable it to be scaled-up and conceal macroscopic objects as well.
Hoax or Fact:
Hoax.
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