Well not on large scale, and not entirely something the normal guy would consider something to become invisible with. So far, the technology works in two dimensions, and mimics a theory that has been known and popular for over 30 years.
So how does it work? In a nutshell: light wave hits an object, the object directs the visible light wave around itself, sending it back on its normal way once the light wave has circumnavigated the object. When looked at it, it would appear as it is not there. The very same theory is used for Bird Of Prey starships, used by Klingons, in Star Trek.
A rough draft from me how it works. Light hits ship, redirected around it, continues once ship is past. This results in optical (NOT real) invisibility. This is what has been achieved.
The new cloak, which is just 10 micrometres in diameter, guides rays of light around an object inside and releases them on the other side. The light waves appear to have moved in a straight line, so the cloak – and any object inside – appear invisible.
The cloak was built by a team led by Igor Smolyaninov at the University of Maryland, and borrows some ideas from the first theoretical design for an invisibility cloak, published by Vladimir Shalaev from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, US, earlier this year.
However, in the moment, this only works in two dimensions and on very small scales. Unfortunately, is is unlikely that the cloak will be extended to work in the missing third dimension, which would result in complete invisibility (like the Klingons and Romulans have). The cloak would have to work in all conceivable directions of light waves, which is currently pretty much not possible to do. But two dimensions is a breakthrough, still.
When one of those suckers uncloaks in your backyard, you know they are not fucking around. Qa’pla.
“At optical frequencies, [wavelengths] get very tiny, and the range of properties available from materials is limited,” says John Pendry, a physicist at Imperial College London, and a member of the team that produced the microwave invisibility cloak.
This is the official result of the experiment. The rings are indeed cloaked, using the Klingon-Romulan theory of invisibility.
New Scientist: Gold rings create first true invisibility cloak
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