A new system that allows messages to appear only to the intended recipient has been developed using an object called a time cloak.

This cloak conceals events rather than objects and can hide secret messages through a trick of light.

Hiding messages this way allows only specific persons to see information you want to share.

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Much like Harry Potter's cloak of invisibility helps obscure him, the time cloak makes an event disappear in time. The time cloak works by manipulating light traveling along an optical fiber.

The way it works is likened to a pedestrian crossing the street.

Imagine a pedestrian waiting to cross the street but a row of cars is speeding along in front of him. The car stops and the pedestrian crosses.

When the cars join the flow of traffic once again, it's as if the pedestrian's presence has been cloaked.

Much like this event, the paths of photons can be tweaked to create brief gaps where information can safely hide.

The discovery is now being used by a team at Purdue University in Indiana. They've built a cloak that can transfer hidden data at 1.5 gigabits a second. This is fast enough to make it useful for real communication.

"With this new device, we don't just limit ourselves to thinking about cloaks as a way of preventing somebody from getting information, but also as a way to enable communication," says Joseph Lukens, an electrical engineer at Purdue. "One guy sees nothing, the other guy sees everything."

Apart from delivering messages, the cloak also successfully fended-off outside attempts to scramble any part of the information.

Moti Fridman from Bar-llan University in Israel says a similar device could one day improve current communication systems.

Fridman says that as current technology nears its data transfer limit, new creative ideas for increasing bandwidth in current systems with minimal changes must be considered.

One such idea is using cloaking.

TagsTime Cloak, Photons