South Korean researchers say they need developed a man-made skin-like material, inspired by natural biology, which will quickly adjust its hues sort of a chameleon to match its surroundings.
The team, led by Ko Seung-hwan, a engineering professor at Seoul National University, created the “skin” with a special ink that changes colour supported temperature and is controlled by tiny, flexible heaters.
“If you wear woodland camouflage uniforms in desert, you’ll be easily exposed,” Ko told Reuters. “Changing colours and patterns actively in accordance with surroundings is vital to the camouflage technology that we created.”
Ko and therefore the team demonstrated the technology – thermochromic liquid (TLC) ink and vertically stacked multilayer silver nanowire heaters – employing a robot with colour-detecting sensors. Whatever colours the sensors “saw” around it, the skin tried to mimic.
In a video, the robot crawled over red, blue and green floors, instantly changing colour to match the background.
“The colour information detected by sensors is transferred to a microprocessor then to silver nanowire heaters. Once the warmers reach a particular temperature, the thermochromic liquid layer changes its colour,” Ko said.
The total thickness of the flexible, multi-layered covering is a smaller amount than 100 micrometers – thinner than a person’s hair. By adding additional silver nanowire layers in simple shapes like dots, lines or squares, the skin can create complex patterns.
“The flexible skin are often developed as a wearable device and used for fashion, military camouflage uniforms, exterior of cars and buildings for aesthetic purposes, and for future display technology,” Ko said.
The research was published within the journal Nature Communications in August.