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Active camouflage or ''adaptive camouflage'', is a group of Camouflage technologies which allow an object to blend into its surroundings by use of panels or coatings capable of altering their appearance, color, luminance and reflective properties. Active camouflage has the potential to perfect concealment from visual detection. Active camouflage differs from conventional means of concealment in two important ways. First, it makes the object appear not merely similar to its surroundings, but invisible by perfect mimickery. Second, active camouflage changes the appearance of the object in real time. Ideally active camouflage mimics nearby objects as well as distant objects as far away as the horizon. The effect should be similar to looking through a pane of glass making, the hidden object practically invisible. Active camouflage has its origins in the Diffused Lighting Camouflage first tried out on Canadian Navy Corvettes during World War II , and later in the armed forces of the Britain and the United States of America. Current systems began with a United States Air Force program which placed low-intensity blue lights on aircraft. As night skies are not pitch black, a 100 percent black-colored aircraft might be rendered visible. By emitting a small amount of blue light, the aircraft blends more effectively into the night sky. Active camouflage is rumored to have taken a new turn with the development of the Boeing Bird Of Prey , which apparently took the technology further. The Bird of Prey was a Black Project and details about it are sketchy. Active camouflage is poised to develop at a rapid pace with the development of Organic Light-emitting Diode s (OLEDs) and other technologies which allow for images to be projected onto irregularly-shaped surfaces. With the addition of a camera, an object may not be made completely Invisible , but may in theory mimic enough of its surrounding background to avoid detection by the human Eye as well as artificial optical sensors. As motion may still be noticeable, an object might not be rendered undetectable under this circumstance but potentially more difficult to hit. This has been demonstrated with videos of "wearable" displays where the camera could see "through" the wearer. Active camouflage or "scramble suit" Transparency made from a tiling of Flat Panel Display s supplied with Image s from Camera s, and a Computer vision system. This functioning prototype is limited by the number of sensors and transducers.]] The active camouflage suit was invented by Science Fiction Author Philip K. Dick in his 1974 Novel '' A Scanner Darkly ''. Worn by the Narcotics double Agent Bob Arctor/Fred, the "scramble suit" is described as a flexible sheath covering the body of the wearer with a reflective/refractive Coating on the inside surface that tranfers the camouflaging pattern—projected by a Holographic Lens mounted on the wearer's head—onto the outside surface of the sheath. Dick's Invention has been copied many times in novels, films and video games to become a standard "scarey, huh?" device in science fiction. Examples appear in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film ''Predator'' , the James Bond film '' Die Another Day '', the '' Metal Gear Solid '' Video Game series, the '' Halo '' video game series, and the Japanese Anime and Manga '' Ghost In The Shell ''—cited as the inspiration for Tokyo University experiments into Optical Camouflage . A similar Cloaking Device is found in '' Star Trek '', however this example does not achieve active camouflage in the same way. In other animals Active camouflage is not a human invention; numerous animals evolved active camouflage millions of years before ''homo sapiens'' became a unique species. The Chameleon can change its color to blend with surroundings, but the ability is primarily used to communicate with other chameleons. The most convincing example of active camouflage in animals is the Octopus , which can blend into its surroundings by changing skin color as well as skin shape and texture. A fictional example of active camouflage in animals is the Gila-Munga, a race of extraterrestrial assassins appearing in Judge Dredd , a story serialized in the weekly British comic book Anthology 2000 AD . SEE ALSO REFERENCES
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