A cloaking device is a theoretical or fictional stealth
technology that can cause objects, such as spaceships or
individuals, to be partially or wholly invisible to parts of the
electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. Fictional cloaking devices have
been used as plot devices in various media for many years.
Developments in scientific research show that real-world
cloaking devices can obscure objects from at least one
wavelength of EM emissions. Scientists already use artificial
materials called metamaterials to bend light around an object.
Conceptual origins  Inspired in part by the 1958 film Run
Silent, Run Deep, Star Trek screenwriter Paul Schneider imagined
cloaking as a space-travel analog of a submarine submerging, and
employed it in the 1966 Star Trek episode "Balance of Terror".
Another Star Trek screenwriter, D.C. Fontana, coined the term
cloaking device for the 1968 episode "The Enterprise Incident".
Scientific experimentation  An operational, non-fictional
cloaking device might be an extension of the basic t