New Wearable Technology Makes Thermal Camouflage Real

Article by Tracy Staedter.

In the classic sci-fi film, “Predator,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, a brutal alien hunts down a team of hired soldiers. Using advanced wearable technology, the creature can make himself invisible and also view the world in infrared. One-by-one, the alien kills the soldiers. But when Schwarzenegger’s character, Dutch, discovers that by smearing himself in cool mud, he can squelch his body heat signature and become invisible to the creature, victory is his.

Now, a more practical, 21st-century solution could render a solider just as invisible to alien predators and nighttime nemeses. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego and the National University of Singapore have, for the first time, created wearable technology that blends a person’s own body heat signature into the surrounding environment’s temperature, adapting to temperature changes and effectively hiding the person from thermal cameras and night vision goggles. The idea is to scale the device so that it can be worn like a jacket or full-body armor. […]

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