There is no doubt that in the future, high technology will give us the opportunity to start using the so-called "smart" clothes. But the use of such clothing is not limited to the embedding of sensors and sensors for reading biometric information. For example, scientists from Cornell and Pennsylvania Universities recently introduced a new type of camouflage material that can change color, surface texture and even shape.
Changing the shape and texture of the surface depending on the specific needs is a very difficult task, which was achieved thanks to the creation of a new type of material. It was named CCOARSE - Circumferentially Constrained and Radially Stretched Elastomer.
What is this fabric like? It is a polymorphic material created by incorporating specially shaped fiber loops into the silicone elastomer. In this case, the shape of all loops is calculated taking into account any possible changes in the shape of the material in the future. In other words, information about what shape will need to be taken is "sewn" into the fabric, and all that remains is to choose the required configuration.
At the moment, changing the shape of CCOARSE is done by changing the tension force of the fiber loops according to a special algorithm created for this purpose. As numerous tests have shown, the error in the deviation of the shape that the material takes does not exceed 10% from the specified one, which is quite enough to ensure invisibility. By the way, scientists, as often happens, were inspired by nature itself, and in this case the octopus served as the "prototype", which perfectly mimics the objects of the seabed. So, the error in changing the shape of an octopus relative to real objects is also in the region of 7-10%.
The US military (which sponsored this project) plans to use the new camouflage system to camouflage robots, reconnaissance equipment and video surveillance systems in a variety of environments: from the deep sea to open spaces on land.
Vladimir Kuznetsov
