Gaberlunzie is still quietly creased, courtesy Gizmag's report  on an 'invisibility' cloak for sound, similar to those that exist for sight - where the light coming from behind an object, being curved around it so that in turn the viewer is only only able to see what's behind the object, and not the object.

Dr Nicolas Stenger (right) constructed a relatively small, millimeter-thin plate, made of both soft and hardmicro-structured polymers. Different rings of material within the plate resonate at different frequencies, over a range of 100 Hertz.
Viewed from above, it was seen that sound wave vibrations were guided around a central circular area in the plate, unable to either enter or leave that region.

"Contrary to other known noise protection measures, the sound waves are neither absorbed nor reflected," said Stenger's colleague, Prof. Martin Wegener. "It is as if nothing was there."

While the plate is a small-scale proof-of-concept, the principles at play in it could perhaps ultimately be used to shield people in a "cloaked" section from loud background noises, or keep eavesdroppers from overhearing private conversations.


Hopefully, says Gizmag's report, the technology being developed will work better than Maxwell Smart's Cone of Silence