Thanks to Japanese research, The twenty-first-century soldier may soon be blending invisibly into the background. The man behind optical camouflage, Susumu Tachi is a professor at Tokyo University, where he works on the "science and technology of artificial reality". Ironically, since he now works to make things invisible, Tachi previously developed a robotic guide dog for the blind.
The optical camouflage developed by Tachi and his research team work by filiming the background environment and projecting it into a coat worn by the test subject. However, this is no average coat. it is covered in thousands of tiny beads that reflect light back to its source, therefore rendering the coat invisible. This is the theory, but in reality the system is stall far from perfect and in great need of cutting back on the volume of equipment required.
Tachi patented the "Menthod and Device for providing Information"in 2002,and since then the technology or variations of it have been appearing in US militry prototypes, monitored surgery may also benefit from the technology.Modern warfare may soon be turning into one big game of hide and seek.
