  Recently, it was demonstrated that active sources can be used to cloak any
objects that lie outside the cloaking devices [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{103},
073901 (2009)]. Here, we propose that active sources can create illusion
effects, so that an object outside the cloaking device can be made to look like
another object. invisibility is a special case in which the concealed object is
transformed to a volume of air. From a boundary element perspective, we show
that active sources can create a nearly "silent" domain which can conceal any
objects inside and at the same time make the whole system look like an illusion
of our choice outside a virtual boundary. The boundary element method gives the
fields and field gradients (which can be related to monopoles and dipoles) on
continuous curves which define the boundary of the active devices. Both the
cloaking and illusion effects are confirmed by numerical simulations.
