Cloaking Device

Cloaking devices generally make things look different or like they aren't there. They vary considerably in terms of form and function and are used for things from briefcases to individuals to massive starships. Probably the simplest are a coat of screens around a ship that display a set image or color. More sophisticated implementations of the same concept involve a coat of multidirectional projectors and cameras so that each projector displays what the cameras facing the opposite direction see, or for cloaking against a single viewer, a software matrix that only projects what that viewer is supposed to see. There are also special kinds of paint that change color, but these, like the simple screens, act more as camouflage than cloaking. Some styles use special optical fibers that physically direct the light from all sides to the opposite side. A highly advanced (and costly) technology utilizes wormholes to create a one-sided portal to an equally-sized empty space that allows light and objects to pass directly through the area as if it literally weren’t there, while still allowing those inside to see, exit, or attack out of the field. So far only the SuperNaturals and Quantis are known to use such cutting-edge technology. A slightly less extreme version of it involves a two-way field, but with an omni-directional camera in the corresponding empty space that feeds to inside the cloak; essentially this replaces the cloaked item with a small camera, while still allowing the cloaked item to appear at any time (as opposed to just sending in a camera).