Octopi can do a ton of amazing things: they can squeeze their way through nearly any opening, for example, or unscrew jars from the inside, or, should they happen to be in danger, they can change color depending on the environment.
It’s this last characteristic that a team of US scientists are most interested in: the team used an octopi’s natural camouflage abilities as inspiration for creating camouflage of their own, which changes its color as the light hits it.
The tech was created by a team of researchers led by Cunjiang Yu, of the University of Houston, and John Rogers, of the University of Illinois. Together, they developed a sheet of camouflage which, similar to an octopus, is capable of detecting light falling on it, and then changing its color accordingly.
At the moment, Yu and Rogers’ “adaptive optoelectronic camouflage” only displays in black and white, and is nowhere near as fast in changing its color as an actual octopus. However, the sheet takes the same approach as one, with three layers of “skin” similar to the three skin levels of a cephalopod: one for warm colors, one for cool colors, and one for light diffusion, according to Mashable.
Their sheet, according to the research the team published in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences journal, is comprised of these three layers: “a color-changing element on top of a white reflective surface, an actuator, and a light sensor.”
In time, the team hopes to improve the tech by adding color, which would make it more efficient as camouflage, as well as making it more energy efficient. But they have a long way to go before they can match the natural hiding abilities of an octopus.
Source Mashable
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