A London-based start-up called the Invisibility Shield Co. had launched its inaugural product called, the Invisibility Shield on Kickstarter. As of this writing, it has been backed by more than 900 people, and it still has 40 days to go. You can still back this project and own your personal invisibility shield ranging from $49 to $299, based on the size you choose.
The Invisibility Shields are portable, free-standing, and come in two sizes: small and full-size. The full-size shield costs $299.00 and is roughly 3.11 feet tall and 2.13 feet wide. This shield will only hide half your body when you are standing, but when you squat, it will be able to hide your whole body. I calculated my sitting height, and it came out to be 3.75 feet, but when I leaned forward a bit, my sitting height reduced to 2.58 feet.
One of the two most plausible reasons to be in this posture could either be because you are a forest-dweller and are looking for food on the ground, or you are in a combat or a combat-like situation. The latter, however, seems more plausible. The company’s intention with Invisibility Shield, however, is for people to have fun with friends or to remove unwanted items from the backgrounds of a photo, for instance.
The company is currently shipping the shields globally except in Belarus and Russia. The estimated time of delivery of the Invisibility Shield is December 2022.
How it works
The Invisibility Shield has specially engineered lenses that diffuse the light coming from the subject away from the observer’s eyes. In this case, the light is diffused towards the left and right of the lens. Meanwhile, the light coming from the subject’s background smears across the shield and converges towards the observer’s field of vision, creating a perfect non-gimmicky optical illusion.
The idea that these Invisibility Shields could be used in combat is highly discouraged by the company because of the use of non-rigid materials for the lenses and the support, and they “have not been designed to protect you from any kind of attack.” The company at present is able to manufacture 20 full-size shields per day. Now, this amounts to roughly 58,400 shields per year or 365 days. So its usage in riot-like, illicit, and explicit situations needs attention as well.
Conclusion
Except for being present on Kickstarter, the company does not have a lot of digital presence. This is quite concerning, especially for a customer and the possible misuse of the product. In 2016, the military-grade invisibility technology came under question on the pretext of its violation tendencies to the Geneva conventions. Under article 37 of the 1949 Geneva conventions, “conventional camouflage” techniques are permitted to run a state operation. But if the intention of camouflaging is to deceive “the enemy,” it could be “outlawed” in the future under the Genevan convention clause “prohibition of perfidy.”
Although the company’s Invisibility Shield can be easily differentiated from the surroundings, the fact that it can hide a person or an object seems scary. The company uses recyclable marine-grade materials and is intentionally designed the shields to seem like a blur in real-time. However, there is very little guarantee of its ethical use in society, and the absence of the company’s digital profiles only strengthens the fears.
YouTube: A Real Working INVISIBILITY SHIELD
Photo credit: The feature image is owned by Invisibility Shield Co. and has been provided for press usage.
Source: Owen Bowcott, Alice Ross (The Guardian) / Kickstarter
