Octopuses Show Scientists How To Hide Machines in Plain Sight (axios.com)

If you want to learn the art of camouflage look no further than octopuses. Just watch this famous video that shows a diver slowly swimming up to a clump of rock and seaweed, only for part of that clump to turn white, open its eye, and jet away, squirting ink behind it. Materials scientists and engineers have fallen under the octopuses' spell. From a report: Scientists have engineered a material that can transform from a 2D sheet to a 3D shape, adjusting its texture to blend in with its surroundings, per a new study published today in Science. They mimicked the abilities of an octopus, which can change both shape and color to camouflage. This is a first step toward developing soft robots that can hide in plain sight, robotics expert Cecilia Laschi writes of the research. Robots that can camouflage may one day be used in natural environments to study animals more closely than ever before or in military operations to avoid detection, she writes.

Comments

Military applications

[tinkerton]

It's always the military applications because that's where the money is. What was it again for US? 700 bn + 130 bn or so for ongoing wars. With a bunch of obfuscated and indirect costs on top.

Camouflage

[Obfiscator]

Anyone else notice how the octopus in the video was the only part of the clump of seaweed not swaying in the current? Guess they have to work on imitating that next.