For the Harry Potter series, author J.K. Rowling dreamed up more than a few fantastical creations. One of them, the Invisibility Cloak, was a plot device that allowed Harry and his friends to creep around the school at night without being detected. Now, though, the Invisibility Cloak may not be so fantastical anymore.

In an article published by CNET, writer Michelle Starr compared a new technology to the Invisibility Cloak of Harry Potter origins. The comparison is an apt one, because the new invisibility technology could reportedly give wearers much more freedom to move around and remain invisible than past cloaking devices.

Until now, cloaking technology has only really worked “if both the viewer and whatever is being cloaked remain still.” As one can imagine, this fact has not necessarily made cloaking devices the most useful or efficient technology in the world. The potential has been there for something groundbreaking, but not much more than that.

However, now it appears that scientists are finally making strides in turning cloaking devices into something more practical. John Howell, a Physics Professor at Rochester University, recently teamed with graduate student Joseph Choi to develop something called “the Rochester Cloak.” According to Howell, the Rochester Cloak is the first device “that can do three-dimensional, continuously multidirectional cloaking,” which means that it is also the first cloaking device that can theoretically hide a person or object as it moves.

In the past, the basic idea of cloaking devices has been to bend light around an object to make it appear as if the object is not there at all. The Rochester Cloak uses the same basic idea, but positions lenses at certain distances from one another so that invisibility is possible regardless of varying viewpoints.

Of course, the lens array that makes this kind of invisibility possible is not exactly portable yet, and Howell and Choi still probably have a long way to go before their technology will be able to be used in war or espionage. However, even though the Rochester Cloak still needs some time to percolate and evolve, Howell and Choi have high hopes of the innovation.

One idea is that the Rochester Cloak can be used during surgical procedures, so that a surgeon’s hands do not obscure the view of the work at hand. Another thought is that the cloak will be able to eliminate blind spots on cars and trucks. Either implementation would likely save lives.