Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
h a l f b a k e r y
If ever there was a time we needed a bowlologist, it's now.

idea: add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, random

meta: news, help, about, links, report a problem

account: browse anonymously, or get an account and write.

user:
pass:
register,


                               

light

active camouflage
  (+4)
(+4)
  [vote for,
against]

I found this page at random, oddly, and it has lead to some of my more hair-brained ideas, primarily in the realm of optic camouflage.

Forgive my spelling, if I was meant to be an English teacher, I wouldn't be here.

When I initially started this idea, there was the typical web search. the results were.... mixed. But there was a recurring theme: how to fool the human visual system.

Now, it could be argued that perfect camouflage is untraceable on all the entire electromagnetic spectrum, but to be honest, simply achieving invisibility on the visual spectrum is a massive feat in and of itself. So, let's begin:

Phased Array Optics (PAO): ideally, this is the way to go, but this has a technological limit as this requires a device, miniaturized, that must be constructed in an array that can manipulate and route light around an object. This is similar to the disruption of the pebble in the water, waves ripple and surround the object, movement follows the path around the material. This has been shown to work on the spectrum via John Pendry.

This has worked on the spectrum tested, but not on the visual spectrum, simply that Pendry's belief in metamaterial is the means to an end, but even Pendry has stated he does not believe true invisibility is acheivable.

Another method is through optics such as cameras, the "invisibility cloth", but that is whack as fuck. Parlor tricks, after all, the goal is true invisibility.

Another method, before diving in to my low-tech insanity, is to use HASEL muscles with particular nano-crystals, just like an octopus or other cephalopod, and through flex movements, manipulate the light on the skin through textural change.

Now, on to the meat and potatoes of bat-shit-crazy: LEDs.

Ideally, using OLED or PLED would be best, but I don't have the means of construction for that nonsense. Instead, I have such novel things as SMD LED 0201, which most likely can't be soldered unless you;'re a savant or nano-bot. These devices can be pre-soldered with wire, but delicacy with always be an issue.

My idea for a suit is based on the possibility of taking these tiny LEDs and arranging an array for complete active camouflage.

How so? Well, to answer that, you must first be a masochist.

Assuming you can utilize LED structures that are 0.65mm x 0.35mm, it would likely take anywhere from 70,00 to 100,000 of these units to cover an entire body. The loss in fidelity could be in that with even a 1080p LED tv, the pixel is about 0.25mm, meaning that you can pack for of those buggers in a 1mm squared space. So we are really doubling over that ability on color with singular parts that are meant to represent one individual color on the spectrum, hoping to cover all the color bases.

As was once brought up here before, an LED can act as a photodiode, and detect light as well as project. From what I have read, the diode is best suited towards the light it is meant to project, meaning a red LED best detects red on the spectrum.

With a massive array built into a suit, there is the problem of angle and display, one I fell can be solved with gyroscopic hardware, such that it adjust based on body movement, sending and receiving signals as to where projection needs to occur. If I could add my garbage drawings for this, I would.

So, drunk rant complete. Butcher, hammer, frappe as you see fit.

solid_slug, Dec 15 2020

cloaking devices for large objects https://www.ncbi.nl.../pdf/ncomms3652.pdf
Completely different to your idea, but I thought was pretty interesting. [xaviergisz, Dec 15 2020]

Please log in.
If you're not logged in, you can see what this page looks like, but you will not be able to add anything.
Short name, e.g., Bob's Coffee
Destination URL. E.g., https://www.coffee.com/
Description (displayed with the short name and URL.)






       Welcome to the halfbakery, [solid_slug]. 12 guage, I presume?
spidermother, Dec 15 2020
  

       If each LED was fitted with a narrow-angle lens, and connected via a colour inverting thingy to the one on the antipode, then this could act as a visual pass-through.   

       But only for viewers orthogonal to the object.   

       So either actively detect the viewer and orient each led pair to be orthogonal to them, or massively increase the number of LEDs so for each "spot" on the wearers body there is an array pointing outwards at every possible angle. E.g. for a 5° field of view you would want 36 leds per dot an that's only allowing for a horizontal displacement in field of view. Add in vertical displacement and you might be needing 1000 LEDs per dot.   

       Thats a lot of wires
pocmloc, Dec 15 2020
  

       //Forgive my spelling// Wow, starting out with a request like that - what are we to expect from you next? You gonna bury all our flocking road cones in custard and take the Hullaballoon out drag racing?
lurch, Dec 15 2020
  

       Creating the image is easy (LEDs, micro-mirrors, etc).
Detecting what you need to display is easy (cameras, light- sensitive LEDs, etc).
It's the bit in the middle that's complicated, as (in particular) it's not a 1:1 relationship between the "in" signal and the "out" signal (unless you're OK with a LOT of blurryness...).
neutrinos_shadow, Dec 15 2020
  

       How does this work when every "pixel" of you is potentially being viewed from many different angles, compounding the problem of which color to present to blend in with which part of the background?
RayfordSteele, Dec 15 2020
  

       If you're doing ray-tracing, you have a particular viewpoint from which you calculate a ray to each element (sized to the desired resolution) of the subject. This idea raises ray-tracing to the power of not just calculating, but generating a ray from each subject element to each possible viewpoint. These viewpoints will have to be, not just a single point, not just a surface of a sphere of potential viewpoints, but an entire volume of such points.   

       Insanity is free, but you can get a lot more of it if you pay enough.
lurch, Dec 15 2020
  

       [spidermother] all the other cool animal code names were taken.
solid_slug, Dec 15 2020
  

       There is a slight chance it is easy to decorate yourself with a kind of high-tech unremarkableness so extreme it effects people's brains so they do not notice you, thus do not remember you. Basically, you can wear the "Too dull to notice symbol".   

       This may or may not exist. The opposite, the too exciting not to notice form/shape was developed with something like a genetic algorithm, adjusting shapes moneys looked at about 10,000 times until the genetic algorith produced a shape that acivated fMRI of the money's brains more than seeing the face of another monkey.   

       If as a human, they had generated something I was more likely to notice than a human face, I might (might not) remember it. It is the opposite of invisibility.   

       So to make the invisibility symbol/shape they could do the same things with the 10,000 human views and the fMRI brain activation measurements, and develop something that actually caused people not to notice other things, but was not exciting itself. Say you or I would notice the image of a beautiful young woman. It is just barely possible that the genetic algorithm could develop a displayable shape that made it so not only did your brain scan not pay any attention to it, your brain simultaneously paid minimal or no attention to the image of a woman.   

       So that is another approach to invisibility. The thing is if you make your invisibility cloak out of physical technology (LEDS or something better) you can display the genetic algorithm shape that reduces noticing of any kind on it and become even more invisible!
beanangel, Dec 17 2020
  

       //they do not notice you, thus do not remember you//
I was born with this ability :-(
neutrinos_shadow, Dec 17 2020
  

       Who said that?
pertinax, Dec 17 2020
  

       I sense a Bold Cerenekov makeover in blue, with social skills faster than the speed of light.
beanangel, Dec 18 2020
  

       // //they do not notice you, thus do not remember you// I was born with this ability :-( //   

       Dude! That's a super power you just haven't learned to maximize for good yet. Sucks that there's cameras every where now, but people-invisibility is handy as all git-out.   

       An octopus would never want to be a shark.   

       I like to think I'm unalarming looking. I'm a little serious.   

       it kind of seems like if when people see me if there was a complete absence of what has been called "stranger danger" it would be a way to be nice to people. I got a haircut to get a tutoring job, and that may have helped a little.   

       I'm certainly not suggesting dress or grooming conformity, it is just that If I could, I would make people happy. I'm not so organized that I dress to improve others' aesthetic day though. Some women seem to be able to do this. I never notice guys. It seems like a nice thing to do.   

       It just occurred to me, people in entheogenic or also psychedelic drug scenes dress to make others happy: Rave/MDMA stuff sometimes looks kind of pettable, and I think LSD users sometimes like highly colored, patterned garments that might be nice for them and others to look at while tripping.   

       Current look: Green sweatshirt with tan pants, white shoes, short hair. Could definitely use a shower.   

       What are other Halfbakers up to with either "invisibility" looks, or perhaps some inventive (!) look?
beanangel, Dec 18 2020
  

       //they do not notice you//   

       Joking apart, [neut], if this is a problem for you, then I recommend dabbling in a bit of amateur performance art. Being on an actual stage, knowing your lines, gives you a set of training wheels for your attention- holding skills.   

       Having acquired those skills, you can then keep them switched off most of the time, so that when you switch them on, people *really* pay attention.
pertinax, Dec 18 2020
  


 

back: main index

business  computer  culture  fashion  food  halfbakery  home  other  product  public  science  sport  vehicle