Camouflage

:For the German synth pop band, see Camouflage (band).

Theory of camouflage

MacKay's statement above remains one of the most important elements in the theory of camouflage - an exact match with the environment's colors is less crucial than the patterning of the regions of color themselves. Ideally, camouflage should be made to break up and thereby conceal the structural lines of the object which it hides. Thus, the patterns often seen on camouflage clothing, masking cloth and vehicle paints are carefully constructed to deceive the human eye by breaking up the boundaries that define sharp edges and human silhouettes. This is called high difference or disruptive camouflage.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Similarly, a tiger's stripes, when viewed in the context of long grass or deeply shaded forest, have the same effect - making it hard to identify the tiger's shape as 'tiger!' Further, the tiger's non-stripe coloring tends to match its background of long grasses, called blending camouflage, high similarity camouflage or figure-ground blending. This mix of blending and disruptive patterns is called coincident disruption - the aim of modern military camouflage.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Coincidentally, the stark black-and-white zebra stripes, while not blending camouflage, is effective disruptive patterning - especially to the colour-blind lion. Another theory states that the zebra stripes are actually dazzle camouflage. In fact recent research, supported by experiments in the field, posits that the high contrast stripes, particularly those running horizontally, are an effective means of confusing the visual system of the tsetse fly. It is believed that stripes, on all such animals, play a major role in identifying the animal to their mates.

Related Topics:
Zebra - Tsetse fly

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Disruptive patterns are designed to counter certain human perceptual models. The tendency to fill in gaps between aligned, or seemingly aligned, shapes to create 'whole' objects (closure and continuity). That overlapping, or appearing to overlap, is part of grouping shapes together (proximity grouping). That similar shapes belong together, they are a coherent unit, while dissimilar shapes are parts of different units (similarity grouping) and so on.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Modern camouflage includes environment-specific patterns such as Bill Jordan's hunting-specific "RealTree" or Camoclad's similarly targeted "Mossy Oak" series, both contain more detailed visual elements than older camouflage. While these obliterative-disruptive patterns are more effective than traditional camouflage patterns, they are also very specific to an environment and season which precludes their use for military purposes. These styles were stimulated by Jim Crumley's "Trebark" design, first marketed in 1980. It should be noted that in the United States most hunted animals are colour-blind and rely on scent warnings (leading to activated-charcoal clothing from Scent-Lok).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Progress has also been made in generalized camouflage patterns as well. In 2004, the US Army joined the US Marine Corps in adopting an updated "digital camouflage" pattern (called MARPAT in the Marine version) to replace the traditional woodland pattern. It is termed "digital" because much of the design was done on a computer and unlike other camouflage patterns, it is blocky and appears almost pixelated.

Related Topics:
2004 - MARPAT

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

People with maskun or other color blindness have been used to detect camouflage, because they have heightened sensitivity to visual patterns and their visual sensitivity curve is different from that of people with normal sight. Military camouflage schemes now are designed with dyes of defined spectral properties — even outside the range of visible light to avoid detection by technical means like night vision (NODs, night observaton devices) or thermal imaging devices. This idea was first trialled by the German Army in late 1944 as the Leibermuster pattern. It has been argued that eventually the military will stop using simple visual camouflage as it is of such diminishing utility.

Related Topics:
Maskun - Color blindness - Visible light

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The opposite of camouflage is making a person or object more visible and easier to recognize, for example with retroreflectors and high-visibility clothing. There are hunting garments with bright orange patches that stand out to the eyes of other hunters, but are supposed to be a tone-match to the color-blind game animals.

Related Topics:
Retroreflector - High-visibility clothing

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Research also continues into adaptive camouflage, which is camouflage that changes to match its environment. One method of doing this is by changing the pre-made pattern, either automatically as some animals can like the octopus, or manually by reversing an article of clothing with a different pattern on either side.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

True adaptive camouflage, which many would call "invisibility", is much more difficult. Such camouflage would require a high resolution display that renders thousands of different angles, depending on the position of the viewer (similar to a hologram). The display information would have to be interpolated from only a few cameras as it is impossible to have one camera per angle displayed. Additionally, the displays would have to be capable of extreme brightness to maintain their illusion during daylight.

Related Topics:
Invisibility - Hologram

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A fictional example of this would be the camouflage used by the alien in the movie Predator. The banding along the sides of the predator is a realistic graphical effect that is a consequence of not rendering enough viewable angles to truly fool the eye. Yet another example of this adaptive camouflage can be seen in the futuristic manga and movie "Ghost in the Shell" by Masamune Shirow in which the main character Motoko Kusanagi utilizes "Optical Camouflage" to assasinate a political figurehead while remainding unseen by any type of visual sensors.

Related Topics:
Predator - Ghost in the Shell - Masamune Shirow - Motoko Kusanagi

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

While much of the display technology exists today, the capability to extrapolate, model, and render a scene at the multitude of angles required and in real time involves more processing power than could be placed inside of an object camouflaged in such a way. It may be possible, however, if real-time adaptation or a large number of viewable angles are not required, the latter of which would result in parallax errors as seen in the predator's camouflage.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~