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Scientists develop camouflage device inspired from octopus skin

Mihai AndreibyMihai Andrei
September 17, 2014
in Inventions, News, Technology
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Opto cover.
Image via Yu el al, 2014.

A mixed team of scientists and engineers developed a thin, flexible 4-layer material that autonomously camouflages itself to the surroundings, constantly evaluating the optical surroundings and automatically adapting to them – much like a chameleon or an octopus does.

It’s the first system of its kind; it takes it just 1-2 seconds mimic the characteristics of the surroundings, just like the chameleon. But the inspiration didn’t come from the ever popular chameleon – instead, researchers studied cephalopods such as the mimic octopus. Cephalopods typically have much faster response times, from 250-750 milliseconds.

The prototype is, of course, a simplification of the animals’ skin. It looks like a pixelated frame, with no central processor controlling the changes. With octopuses, the eyes play a crucial role in the camouflage process, but the skin has its own photoreceptors similar to those found in the retina. This material works the same way – it has optical sensors that monitor the surroundings and then order individual parts to adapt. Think of it as a pixel screen – each pixel changes its color, mimicking the surroundings. But this is just the top layer.

The next layer is a matrix of shiny silver surfaces that create a bright white background made from silver. Silver was chosen for a number of reasons, including its thermal conductiveness, high reflectivity and chemical stability. Below that, the next layer heats the “pixels” through the silver layer, and at the bottom, there is a layer that contains an array of light detectors. Everything is placed ontop a flexible plastic support. It’s a complicated design, but then again, it’s a complicated objective.

The main reason why this was develop is, of course, military, but there are also potential applications in industry and recreation.

Journal Reference: Cunjiang Yu et al, Adaptive optoelectronic camouflage systems with designs inspired by cephalopod skins.  12998–13003, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1410494111

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Mihai Andrei

Mihai Andrei

Dr. Andrei Mihai is a geophysicist and founder of ZME Science. He has a Ph.D. in geophysics and archaeology and has completed courses from prestigious universities (with programs ranging from climate and astronomy to chemistry and geology). He is passionate about making research more accessible to everyone and communicating news and features to a broad audience.

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