To paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from the weavings of Elves:
New materials with the ability to manipulate the speed of light could enable the creation of a “space-time cloak” capable of masking events or even creating an illusion of “Star Trek”-style transportation, according to scientists in London.
The cloak, while currently only existing in mathematical theory, takes advantage of the potential properties of “metamaterials” — artificial materials designed and manipulated at a molecular level to interact with and control electromagnetic waves.
…[Professor Martin McCall of Imperial College London] said current optical-fibre technology could be used to construct a “poor man’s cloak” capable of demonstrating “proof of concept” by imperfectly hiding events taking place over a few nanoseconds.
(From a CNN report.)
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They have already made very limited invisibility cloaks. The problem is that they only work if looking at them from one specific direction, under controlled lighting, and proably under several other highly contrived circumstances. In other words, it’s much like a stage illusion. Look at the table from the audience and indeed the magician’s legs disappear beneath it and he can reach into his hat to pull out a 40’s foot anaconda… Step to one side and you see its a painting of the stage curtain seen behind the table.