'Thank you very much, Sir!'
Posted on 09/13/2008 8:29:23 AM PDT by T Ruth
Military technology: Advances in camouflage, concealment and deception are revolutionising an age-old art of warfare
AS A special-forces agent in the French Navy, Michel Malalo has clandestinely entered several African countries by sea to extract endangered French nationals. Almost all the enemy fighters he encountered carried the AK-47, a widely used assault rifle renowned for its rugged reliability. But the AK-47 has a serious drawback: glint, which gave Mr Malalo an advantage in firefights. Made with steel, the AK-47 reflects light. “It’s flashy—and from afar,” says Mr Malalo, who took advantage of glint giveaways when shooting at the enemy. Mr Malalo, who left the special forces uninjured six years ago, says the French assault rifle, the Famas, is superbly non-reflective even in bright light.
Developing new metal alloys to reduce rifle glint is just one facet of the effort to develop better camouflage, concealment and deception technologies that is under way at defence contractors, military research bodies and university laboratories. Most of this research is being conducted in America and Europe. Much is classified. The results are often remarkable.
Even the most common form of camouflage—the coloured patterns printed onto combat fatigues—is being given a high-tech twist, as designers work with new software that incorporates neuroscientists’ understanding of human vision. Pattern-generation software analyses a large number of photographs of a given theatre of operations. By crunching meteorological data on typical lighting and visibility conditions, combined with information about the colours and predominance of shapes visible in cities, fields and wilderness areas, the software proposes new, improved patterns. “It really does get technical,” says Réjean Duchesneau, a lieutenant-colonel with NATO in Casteau, Belgium, who helped design a Canadian camouflage pattern called CADPAT.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
I seem to recall there is a book by that same name.
Sounds like the book about the Omamanation after election day .
Picture of a new AK47:
See, technology DOES work....
Cammo? We don' need no steekeen cammo!
Maybe the frogies never heard of flat spray painting yer'ol hunt'n gun? They, the frogies, grow up hunting with poodles or something? Right? No need for a gun against a vicious, charging mushroom or fungus.
DAMN YOUR EYES!
TOO LATE!
There is more wit on this short thread than in 50 days of DU threads.
You're quite welcome.
There is more wit on this short thread than in 50 days of DU threads.
If you start missing those threads I could cuss 50 times per post and start whining about my antipsychotic meds not working.
please excuse the emo music.
The interesting part of camouflage is the theory behind it.
This boils down to how the eyes, and by extension, sensor see, and how what is seen is interpreted.
This means that movement, sound, smell, size, shape, color, contrast, perspective, attraction, attention and fixation, expectation, suspense and shock, illusion—distraction and obscuration, and even superstition come into play.
To design camouflage, you have to understand the eyes, the ears, the nose, the brain, and the mind. Which is why is can be very, very expensive to develop camouflage that works.
The best camouflage not only blends in with its surroundings, but it actually repels interest. People do not want to look at it, yet at the same time want to neglect it. That blend is amazingly hard to achieve.
Maybe a good illustration can be found in a fake rubber dog poo gag.
Let’s say you use it to hide an important key.
If it’s up on a shelf, it is out of context, so most people would notice it and find the key.
If it was on the floor of your home, and you didn’t have a pet, you would likely inspect it and find the key.
If it was on the floor, and you had a pet that might make such a mess, you would still inspect it, carefully, but still find the key. Especially if the floor had other messes on it.
But if it was on somebody else’s floor, and they had a pet, and it was messy, you would probably leave it alone. But you would point it out to them, and they would find the key. Unless, of course, you didn’t like them, and you don’t mention it.
Ironically, even though it was very obvious, it might best be put someplace like a sidewalk, where it would be assumed to be natural and avoided.
In practice, aversion camouflage is peculiar. For example, if you wear an ordinary eye patch in public, people who don’t know you will only see the eye patch. Later, if asked, they will be hard pressed to remember any other detail.
I love John Cleese! The incendiary devices used in the film are top drawer!!!!
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