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Active camouflage

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Active camouflage refers to a series of technologies which would allow an object (usually military in nature) to blend into its surroundings by use of panels or coatings capable of changing color or luminosity.

This began with a United States Air Force program which placed low-intensity blue lights on aircraft. As night skies are not pitch black, a truly black-colored aircraft might stand out to the naked eye. By emitting a small amount of blue light, the aircraft appears to blend into the sky more easily.

Active camouflage is rumored to have taken a new turn with the development of the Boeing Bird of Prey, which apparently took the technology to a higher level. However, as the Bird of Prey was a black project, specific information is sketchy.

This technology is poised to develop at a rapid pace, with the development of OLEDs and other technologies which allow for images to be projected from oddly-shaped surfaces. With the addition of a camera, while not allowing an object to be made completely invisible, theoretically the object might project enough of the background to fool the ability of the human eye or other optical sensors to detect a specific location. As motion would still be noticable, an object would merely be more difficult to hit, and not undetectable under this circumstance. This has been demonstrated with videos of "wearable" displays where the camera could see "through" the wearer. See Predator.