Invisibility cloak: Could this be in the future?

Check this out!

Researchers at Duke University, Imperial College (London), and SensorMetrix have developed a cloaking device. Take that you pesky Romulans!

Before I get too carried away I should probably mention that the cloaking device does not cloak objects from sight, which is what I first think of when I think cloaking device, not yet anyway. Researchers demonstrated that the cloak they developed can deflect microwave beams so they flow around an object with little distortion, making it appear almost "invisible".

The researchers used metamaterials to create the cloak. The metamaterials have properties not readily observed in nature, such as the ability to help smoothly deflect microwave beams around an object. I quite honestly don't understand all the science - when I was reading about it I encountered several strings of words explaining metamaterials that left me dumbfounded, such as "the group velocity is antiparallel to phase velocity (as opposed to parallel for normal isotropic materials)." While that phrase makes me feel intellectually inadequate, it does not lessen my interest in the cloaking idea.

Watch a video about the "invisibility cloak" here.