Slashdot Mirror
Scientists Develop Thermal Camouflage That Can Dupe Infrared Cameras (cosmosmagazine.com)
Writing in the journal Nano Letters, scientists from Turkey, the U.S. and U.K. describe a material that acts as thermal camouflage. Cosmos reports: Coskun Kocabas and colleagues created a film comprising multiple ultra-thin layers of graphene and a bottom layer of gold, with non-volatile ionic liquid in between them. When a small current is applied, the ions move up into the graphene layer, cutting down the infrared radiation the surface would normally emit. Because it's thin, light and flexible the film can be applied to any number of surfaces, including clothing. Tests have successfully camouflaged a hand owned by a subject wearing a covering of the material, and others have shown it to be indistinguishable from its surroundings in a variety of ambient temperatures.
And it lasts a long time.
You radiate IR for some very good reason. If you are wearing a suit of this stuff I imagine you won't be wearing it a long time.
The novelty is that this camouflage is switchable. It can be turned on and off.
Otherwise, IR camouflage has been use for quite a long time in the military. (Basically, in an over simplified manner, it boils down to very well insulating clothes). In most country, most of the "green" stuff military wear is well isolated and doesn't radiate much heat.
Even the emergency bandage comes with an extra IR-isolating (also painted green) over-laying band that can mask part of the IR radiation that the underlying wound and bloodied wound derssing could be giving of.
But all this is static (basically, well isolating cloths).
TFA's camo is switchable (between isolation and transmission).
Might have also some non-strategic application (sport clothes to adapt to external temperature ?)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
You radiate IR for some very good reason.
Yup, you're losing thermal energy.
For years, "thermal camo" has basically boiled down to "a layer of very well insulating clothes" (and face paint, and gloves).
The thing is, in a very hot climate, wearing insulating clothes will make you feel hot.
You would need to undress a bit, which might not be practical in every situation.
If you are wearing a suit of this stuff I imagine you won't be wearing it a long time.
The whole point of this tech is that it's switchable between isolating and radiating mode.
At a single button you can basically transform it from a wool sweater to sport T-shirt and back, without need to remove any layer of clothes (unlike classical thermo camo).
You only turn it on where thermal camouflaging is necessary, instead of wearing an isolating layer for the whole time.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I don't know how to classify this one... maybe it falls into the "WTF English" category?
Useless "scientists".
Arnold Schwarzenegger did just that in Predator.
Probably served him well when he was Duh Governator and wanted to slip out and pork his maid...
They are telling us that the materials used for infrared camouflage must be expensive and difficult to fabricate as the gold, the graphene, unknown non-volatile ionic liquid, etc.
There are another cheaper alternatives to fabricate this infrared camouflage with cheaper materials that absorb infrared radiations.
It just sounds like the sort of thing that would have military applications, and perhaps be the key to many more. So why didn't DARPA snap it up before it was published somewhere China would see it?
So why are the scientists wasting their time?
IT'S too LITTLE to MAKE LOVE WITH
Ghost in the Shell.
This stuff. Themoptical camo. It's a few story points throughout the book and how it's used to evade and so forth. It's also very Cyberpunk. Computer brain interfaces. The world's data at the tips of my thoughts. It's all cool.
Until you look at the poverty, the political situations, the fact that you can brainwash people and implant memories...reality is kinda fucked up there.
So, yeah. If we could get everyone to stop going down this direction in history, I think we might all end up happier in the long run.
If this doesn't burn too much energy to function, it could improve energy saving for buildings. Also, switchable thermal bridge could find use in reciprocating thermodynamic machines - engines and heat pumps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAEP-FhFGmA
a relatively Ink splashes acroos open platform, [tux.org]? Are you to have regular
How is this new? Arnold Schwarzenegger figured that out decades ago. 1987, specifically.
It needs to be transparent so that it can cover the eyes, which are the most important parts to camouflage.
Thinner and warmer coats.
Same way GORE-TEX was adopted by hikers and fisherman.
You are not *wasting* heat. Increasing entropy is unavoidable side-effect of life.
So to prevent the case where it is truly wasted, simply kill yourself.
So it is electric now and it is supposed to emit electromagnetic waves now. So now we can build self guided rockets targeting those suits :-) One barrage of rockets will eliminate all members of special forces team :-)
It's a lot fainter and would be much harder to see against a variable background but it's not invisible.
The Taliban were using space blankets to try a defeat IR and it worked sometimes
Mandatory predator reference.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
All Arnold had to do to hide from the Predator was to roll around in the mud. Much cheaper.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
Seriously, what is the advantage of this over a removable insulating jacket? ... or the mud that Arnold uses in the Predator?
Also, what are the relevant time constants? Once switched on, surely this material cannot maintain low thermal emmisivity forever when strapped to a hot object?
I need some of this for my car... lol
- Tjp
I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!