WEBVTT - Is the Future Invisible? 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.200 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:14.319 Forward Thinking. Hey there, everyone, and welcome to Forward Thinking, 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:16.880 the podcast that looks at the future and says, take 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:20.000 a look at the invisible girl here. She is clear 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:23.480 as the day. I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Joe McCormick, 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:26.680 and our other host, Lauren Vogelbaum is not with us today. 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:29.920 She is under the weather, but we hope that she 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:32.479 feels better soon and she will join us again in 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:36.960 our next session. Yes, indeed, so she's missing out on 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:40.479 a great topic, right. You know. The other option is 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:42.760 she might be here and we don't even know about it. 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:47.120 That is true. She could be sitting immediately to my right, 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:49.920 your left, Joe, just to peek behind the curtain there 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:52.680 for those of you out there in podcast land. She 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.800 could just be in her normal spot. But she could 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:59.040 be undetectable to the naked eye, right because she has 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:03.440 been granted a helm of darkness by the goddess Athena, 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:07.520 or perhaps a cloak that she's inherited from her father 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:10.720 who went to wizarding school, or perhaps a suit made 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:14.160 out of some kind of bizarre nano material that that 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:16.320 renders you invisible to the naked eye. No, I was 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:18.000 going to go with the one ring, but that's way 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:22.160 more realistic. Okay, So yeah, we're gonna talk about wait, wait, no, 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:27.840 I got a better one predator. That's the ultimate technological invisibility, right, 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:33.560 because then you become like late eighties early nineties computer effect. Yeah, which, 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.280 that's that's all I ask for. Really, I don't. I 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:41.160 don't demand perfect invisibility. In fact, I want just near 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:43.760 perfect invisible. Right. You want little ripples where they can 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:47.280 see the outline of your wrist spikes. Yeah, the same 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:48.640 sort of thing that you had see in some of 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:51.400 the Star Trek films, right, because because if you had 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:54.840 perfect invisibility, it's hard to convey a sense of terror 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:58.160 when you just have a you know, calm looking environment. 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:00.960 You folks are so lucky that didn't just go down 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:03.520 the path of making hollow man jokes. But anyway, it 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:08.240 should be obvious that we're talking about invisibility tech today. 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:11.200 What is the future of invisibility? We know the past, 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:14.280 which is that everybody wanted to be invisible. It shows 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:17.400 up in folklore. There is, as I mentioned, their Greek 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:19.800 myths about you know, a helmet you can put on 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:23.639 to become invisible. Um, there are other sort of invisibility 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:26.680 capes and magical cloaks and things like that. There are 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:31.760 there are entities that are capable of disappearing to mortal man. Yeah, 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:35.200 you know, it goes way back the desire to disappear, 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.760 And that's not really all that surprising because it actually 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:42.040 goes back further than humans. You don't even have to 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:46.560 look to folklore. You can look to nature because it's 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:51.440 inherently great to become invisible because it provides you an advantage. 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:53.880 It's pretty simple. It's easy to get to drop on 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:56.440 somebody if they don't know where you are, but you 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.880 know where they are. Or it's easy to evade someone 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:02.280 getting the drop on you because you're able to hide 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.720 away and the the the potential predator that would have 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:08.560 doubled you up is none the wiser and just continues 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:12.640 on its predatory path. So yeah, there there are certainly 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:16.240 advantages to being able to blend in with your environment 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:18.560 and fade into the point of invisibility. I mean, that's 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:21.880 that's pretty clear now with us humans. I think a 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:24.440 lot of it tends to be power fantasies, but but 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:26.560 let's set that aside, right, Maybe at the end we 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:29.799 can talk a little bit about the actual ethics behind 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:33.880 invisibility technology. What are we talking about here? What would 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:38.640 invisibility technology entail? Well, you won't hear the term invisibility 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:43.520 a lot in people among engineers and researchers investigating this, 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:47.320 they tend to speak more in terms of quote cloaking. Yeah, 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:50.520 because I think that's a little more it's a little 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:53.360 more realistic, sort of accurately conveys more of what they're 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:57.400 trying to do. They're trying to somewhat shield your detectability, 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:01.080 not so much make you invisible like the folklore. Well, yeah, 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:06.200 and especially since cloaking gets around, uh, the the belief 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:10.520 the invisibility is all about the visible spectrum. Invisible, You've 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:15.240 got the word visible there. Cloaking can be about making 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:21.280 a device or or structure undetectable from very specific means 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:25.160 as opposed to, or or even more general means as 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:27.440 opposed to something like the visible spectrum. So a cloaking 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:31.360 device might be effective for something that is outside the 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:33.479 visible spectrum, meaning that we would be able to see 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:36.000 it with our naked eye, but using other means we 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:38.599 would be unable to detect it, right, say if we 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:44.120 sensed things by heat or something, or microwaves or radio waves. So, 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:48.080 for example, stealth technology can be considered at least on 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:51.560 a certain level as cloaking technology. It's just as you 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:54.040 can see a stealth bomber. But that's not really what 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:56.560 they care about. They care about radar, right because I mean, 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:59.520 you're the chances of you spotting a a stealth fighter 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:03.000 or stealth bomber in the air are very low because 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:06.560 they fly very high and they move very quickly. So 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:11.320 they're really worried about being detected by by artificial means, 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:14.360 by radio means, and that's where the clothing homes. Yeah, 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:16.920 I assumed radar, maybe some other kind of means too. 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:19.440 I'm not up on all that military tech. It's really 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.160 radar because it's all about beaming out of a frequency 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:25.040 of radio waves and waiting to hear back the echo. 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:27.800 And if you never hear the echo, then you just assume, 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:30.279 all right, there was nothing there. And so stealth stealth 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:33.400 technology is all about either absorbing or redirecting those radio 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.640 waves so that they don't bounce back to a receiving 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.080 station and then therefore they have no idea where you 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.719 could be. Yeah, okay, so let's back way up and 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:46.440 start with the simplest idea, which is camouflage. Okay, Camouflage 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:50.159 is basically biommetic. I know this is always in danger 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:52.839 of turning into the bio memetics podcast, but that really 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:55.599 is the future. People look into nature because nature has 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:58.240 got a lot of good stuff going on. Yeah. Um, 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:00.839 it's like being one of those animals that can blend 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:03.479 in with its surroundings. So in this method, the goal 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:07.320 is to appear such that a landscape with you in 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:11.080 it doesn't look much different from a landscape without you 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:13.440 in it. You want a predator to be able to 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:16.560 look at you without realizing you're an object distinct from 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:20.039 your surroundings. So how do you do that? Well, the 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:23.040 easiest form would be passive camouflage. This is the kind 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.360 of camouflage. You know that your cousin Wardrior wedding and 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:29.040 that they sell an army surplus stores. It's the kind 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:31.640 of camouflage most common in the animal kingdom too. You 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:33.800 can tell that that Joe and I are both from 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:35.960 the South, where I didn't link an eye at the 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:38.719 idea of my cousin wearing camouflage to my wedding. No 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:41.520 cousin of mine actually wore camouflage to my wedding. I 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:43.760 was that was a legit. I didn't invite my cousins. 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:48.640 So well, good idea. So let's think about maybe, uh, 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:52.440 not so much the gray or the green and brown 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:56.080 army camouflage, but say, like like a polar bear or 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:58.560 an Arctic fox, they have white fur which comes in 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:01.479 handy if you're trying to stalk prey on the snowy 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:04.640 tundra or out on an ice sheet. So animals can 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:07.800 passively blend in with their surroundings by color patterns or 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:14.760 maybe by physical structures, say think of the phasmatodia, right sure, yeah, 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:17.400 or a combination of both of course, right yeah, you can. 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:20.720 Even there are animals that have patterns on their hides 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.120 that help them blend in with their surroundings. It helps 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:26.960 break up the shape of the animal, especially like something 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:30.200 in the savannahs of of Africa. You know, you have 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:32.600 these these animals that have different shapes that help them 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:35.320 kind of blend in, uh, And it breaks up the 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:38.560 outline of the animal shape itself, thus cutting down on 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:41.280 the chance they'll be spotted by a predator. Um, so 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:46.000 there's not like just a single approach to passive camouflage. 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:50.320 But this particular type of camouflage tends to only be 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:55.640 really effective in specific geographic regions. Yeah, or maybe even 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:59.960 only in specific parts of those geographic regions. Like, passive 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:04.120 camouflage might work really well on tree bark, but then 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:06.880 if you crawl onto a leaf, it doesn't work so 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:11.080 well because it doesn't change. So the Arctic fox wanders 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:14.520 onto green grass or onto an asphalt parking lot, it 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:16.840 sort of loses its edge. Got a great example of 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:22.000 this polar polar bear found on a tropical island. Lost. 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:27.840 So that's not a great form of camouflage. Scary and 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:32.319 certainly raises some questions that I think are never sat answered. Spoiler, 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:35.680 are never answered. That's exactly right. But what if the 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:38.840 fox could change the color of its coat to blend 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:42.640 in with its surroundings. Well, actually a fox sounds more 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:45.360 active than passive there. Yeah, a fox can actually do 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:47.800 that on a slow time scale. So when the seasons 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:51.600 change in the snow melts, the Arctic foxes coat changes color. 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.240 It gets darker during the warmer months, so it can 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:56.840 blend in with rocks and grass and dirt and stuff 0:08:56.880 --> 0:09:01.360 like that. But it turns white again next winter. That's nice, 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:05.200 but of course that's not very useful minute to minute 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:08.559 or second very gradual we were talking. If we want 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:12.319 to talk about an animal capable of hiding its presence 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:15.880 as it moves from one environment to another, or at 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:19.960 least the environment itself has a gradation of different colors, 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:22.920 you need to take something a little more drastic than 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:26.600 a gradual change of your your coat's color. Right, So 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:31.040 now it's time to look into things like cephalopods. Okay, 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:34.240 so now we're looking at your your critters like a 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:39.440 like your octopus, and same things that are capable of 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:43.080 changing the color of their of their skin or their 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:50.040 outer surface and a very uh well like in real time. Yeah, exactly. 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:54.560 I mean this is truly nature's active camouflage. It's not passive. 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:58.800 Their skin dynamically changes to respond to their surroundings. I 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:02.280 don't mean that all speak sees of these families of 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:05.000 animals do that in the same way. But within these 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:08.840 groups there are animals like that. So if they suddenly 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:11.520 need to vanish against the pebbly texture of the sea floor, 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:13.640 they can or if they need to blend in with 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:15.720 a pile of rocks, they can do that too. They're 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:18.040 pretty amazing. In fact, if you just want to have 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:20.280 your mind blown and you've never seen this before, go 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:25.440 to YouTube and just type in camouflage octopus and sit 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:27.960 there and watch it over and over again. You won't 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:33.400 be able to stop. It's unbelievable. This isn't really camouflage either, 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:36.719 but the mimic octopus also does something really interesting. I 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:39.120 don't know if you've ever seen this. It doesn't just 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:42.760 blend in with its surrounding it. It actually mimics other animals, 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:45.600 so it'll pretend to be a poisonous sea snake or 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:49.520 something like that. Um, and I think that's also really interesting. 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:53.240 But there are technological ways to mimic the moment to 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:58.240 moment dynamic camouflage of these animals. Your Yeah, there are, 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:01.360 And the question is how good are they? Okay, well, 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:04.800 let's let's start by talking about what they do, and 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:08.520 then we can critique how good they are at doing it. Okay, 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:11.720 I think we should start with the one you're probably 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:15.160 sitting there imagining right now. Okay, I ask you to 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:19.000 design a system for active camouflage and give you a 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:20.960 few hundred bucks to put it together. What do you 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.680 do well, I mean, with a few hundred bucks, I 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:26.320 probably scoff in your face. But what I would have 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:29.360 to bucks, okay, whatever, what I would attempt to do 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:32.760 is I would want to set up a projector and 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:35.720 a camera. All right, Let's say, let's say, for argument's sake, 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:39.920 that I want to make James Bond's car disappear, and 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:42.440 you've only given me a few hundred bucks. So I 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:45.080 would pretty much have to coat the car with something 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:49.160 that would make it act like a screen, retro reflective 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:51.840 material that would be preferable. I don't know that I 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:53.679 can manage that with a couple hundred bucks, but we'll 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:55.360 see what we can do. Maybe it's just a tarp, 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:58.600 but well, we'll try. And then I would set up 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:02.079 a camera behind the car are pointing at whatever happens 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:05.080 to be behind it. From the perspective of the person 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:07.640 who's going to be looking at this vehicle in front 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:09.920 of the car, I would set up the projector so 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:13.360 the feed from behind the car would go directly to 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.400 the projector, which would project that feed onto the car. 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:19.320 So from the perspective of someone looking at it from 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:21.920 behind where the projector is. It would just like a 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:25.480 projector that's shooting out light at nothing. The idea being 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.960 that that the the images behind the car would be 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:32.160 projected onto the car, so it would be as if 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:35.439 the light were passing straight through. Right, And so, video 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:39.040 equipment has reached a point of sophistication where you can 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:42.439 legitimately do this pretty well. You can get a high resolution, 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.520 real time feed with no significant delay, run it through 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:50.319 a computer projected onto a reflective surface. This is pretty 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:54.120 much doable, but there are a few problems with it. Yeah. 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:58.320 Number one, I mean what if I stepped to the side. Yeah, 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:01.400 you just ruined everything, Joe, you gave me a couple 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:03.839 hundred bucks? What do you want? No, No, that This 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:08.000 is exactly the issue. Right. The the illusion is broken 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:10.480 if you are viewing it in any plane other than 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:13.400 the one that has been set up specifically for this purpose. 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:16.120 So you need to be looking directly in the way 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:18.960 that the image is being projected, right. Yeah, So if 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.000 I'm coming at it from the side, I'm just gonna 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:24.840 see the set up with the projector and the camera 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:29.080 and the the car with the retroflective material draped over 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:31.720 it in the center, and to me, there's gonna be 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:34.720 I'm just like, well, uh, I could see what you're 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:36.640 trying to do. But that's the problem is I can 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:39.400 see it. And so in order to make this a 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:42.440 realistic illusion from all angles, you would have to have 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:45.840 something that's really impossible to achieve practically. You would have 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:50.760 to have cameras from every conceivable angle, uh, and and 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:54.240 projectors from every conceivable angle, and also the rest of 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:57.880 the equipment that would be used to facilitate this, to 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:00.440 support it um and all the power and all this 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:04.560 kind of stuff. It just quickly becomes uh impractical. You know, 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:07.800 even if you could possibly do it, where from any 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:09.480 given angle, you wouldn't be able to see the car. 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:13.359 You'd see all this equipment everywhere, and you think something's 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:15.560 going on here. I don't know what. Maybe they're setting 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:17.760 up for another like a matrix movie where they want 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:20.760 to get that sixty degree panning thing going on, but 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:23.680 otherwise I'm not really sure what's what's supposed to be 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:27.440 happening here. Yeah, there's another problem with it, which is that, 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:30.680 in addition to the fact that you have all this 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:34.760 bulky equipment and things like that. If you've ever seen this, 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:38.000 because people have made systems like this years and years ago. 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:41.960 It was covered in an early house stuff works article. Um, 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:44.600 there was a I believe a group at the University 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:47.160 of Tokyo that built a system like this, which I 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:49.880 don't want to as usual, I don't want to downplay 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:52.840 their achievement. It was good work that they did. But 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:55.880 you can see that this is not necessarily going to 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:59.840 be invisibility as much as it's sort of helps you 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:02.480 blend in a little more. Yeah, I mean it could. 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:05.520 You can still see somebody wearing a cloak like this. 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:08.240 You can tell there's a person there wearing a cloak. 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:12.080 They just have projected on their cloak what's behind them. 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:17.400 It could be really cool for specific non strategic purposes, 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:20.200 like for for a marketing thing, it could be really 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:23.680 neat or if you if you actually know, like if 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:26.920 you can control the perspective at which people are going 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.160 to be viewing something, then it could be effective. So 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:33.480 it might be effective as another additional means of camouflage 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:39.600 for a stationary U exhibit or stationary uh you know, uh, 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:44.520 like a base or something. But it would again you'd 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:48.960 have to be really good at at expecting where people 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:51.640 are going to be viewing this set up from Yeah, 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:54.520 one way, maybe you could get around this is looking 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:59.040 at instead of doing just standard two dimensional projection if 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:04.800 you had a way of creating dynamic holography, so projecting 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:09.280 a more three dimensional image onto a surface. Maybe maybe 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:11.840 have you ever seen any of the three D mapping 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:15.800 technology where uh, it's it's it's used just really for 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:20.960 publicity steak, but it's uh it's a technology where a 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:23.840 team will come out and project an image against a 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:28.760 three dimensional object that's been digitally mapped specifically for that projection, 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:32.360 and it ends up making the object look like itself 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:35.560 is interactive. It's usually used against enormous buildings, so the 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:37.560 effect is that you can see things like the bricks 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:40.800 in the building appear to fall down or or start 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:44.160 to twist in place. It's really an interesting effect, and 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:47.520 you could use something like that as a means to 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:52.160 project against it whatever is behind that object, making that 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:54.800 object seem to disappear. But it would be a lot 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:57.200 of effort for something that would again only work if 0:16:57.200 --> 0:16:59.400 you were standing in the right spot. If you were 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.840 unless you had mapped every side of that object, and 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:05.800 you had a really good coverage of it. It would 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:08.240 not be effective for someone who happened to be coming 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:11.920 from the opposite side. So um. I have, however, seen 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:14.280 a really cool implementation of this that was not meant 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:17.680 for cloaking, but it was meant for a costume effect. 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:20.199 So I saw a guy who was dressed up as 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:24.560 a zombie and he had mounted a like a go 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:27.760 pro style camera on his back, on the small of 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:31.920 his back, and then on his stomach. He had mounted 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:37.000 essentially a tablet device and the feed from the went 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:38.800 to the tablet, so that way it looked like he 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:40.920 had a gun shot, like a shotgun wound in the 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:44.000 middle of his torso, and you could see through it 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:46.200 because of the live feed from the camera behind him. 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:48.760 It's pretty good. Yeah, it was really clever, But but 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:51.480 that was not obviously not cloaking or invisibility. It was 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:54.399 just a cool costume trick. All right, let's talk about 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:59.439 flexible optoelectric camouflage skin. Well that sounds promising, Joe, but 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:04.199 what is it? So let's go back to the cephalopods. Okay, 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:06.640 how do they do it? I mean, an octopus has 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:10.080 to have. It's not magic. It has some physical structure 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:13.480 that allows its skin to mimic what's below it and 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:17.080 project that image onto the skin. It doesn't need external 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:21.000 projectors anything like that. Right, um, so why don't we 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:23.639 just look at how they do it and try to 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:26.679 mimic that. Well, have you ever tried to interrogate an octopus? 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:30.520 Those suckers are really tight lepped. They are actually very 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:33.160 crafty and sneaky. Even if you've ever heard of somebody 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:35.040 who tried to keep an octopus as a pet. You 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:38.679 cannot keep these things contained. They're so smart and nimble. 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:40.760 They will find a way out of your house and 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:45.360 you find them again. They're running a con operation somewhere downtown. 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:47.880 It's usually it's usually three card Monty because they're really 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:51.520 good at that, right, but bad card Monty. But now 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:53.399 they we are we are making fun of it. But 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:57.840 they are quite uh, quite good at problem solving and 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:00.199 there and their skin is just as smart as are 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:05.479 basically so. Researchers including Kunjong You of the University of 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:09.760 Houston and John Rodgers of the u of Illinois published 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:12.760 some findings in a paper in p N A S 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:16.280 this past August, and the paper was called Adaptive opto 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:24.000 Electronic camouflage Systems with designs inspired by cephalopod skins awesome biommetics. 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:28.119 I love it so looking at how cephalopod skin works. 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:32.240 They designed a system of thin, flexible material they can 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:36.960 match the color patterns of its environment automatically without projectors. 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:41.680 The sheets have essentially three layers. The top layered displays 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:45.879 color to the observer. This is done with pixelated temperature 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:50.479 sensitive material that changes color based on heat. The middle 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:54.280 layer does the work of changing the top layers color 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:58.160 by way of electrical actuators. So it supplies some electric 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:01.280 current that changes the temperature of the top layer and 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:05.600 it's color changes. And the bottom layer is the sensor layer. 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:10.080 This contains photosensitive elements that react to external light signals 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:13.159 and tell the actuators what to do. So this is 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:15.840 the layer that's actually sensing what the color is of 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:20.240 the surrounding environment. Right, So it's it's essentially uh, an 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:23.879 input layer, oh do in the work layer, and an 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:27.520 output layer. That's really awesome. Yeah, And it's very thin, 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:32.199 very flexible. It apparently works like a charm, except the 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:34.679 prototype is only in black and white so far, and 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:38.280 it's not very large, but it demonstrates that the principle works. 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:41.840 The researchers said they could potentially upgrade it to provide 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:45.320 more surface area and more color diversity. And I think 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:47.840 that's really interesting. So the black and white, you don't 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:53.159 mean that it's just going to be either a solid black, right. 0:20:53.200 --> 0:20:55.679 And also if there's a pattern, it'll pick up that 0:20:55.760 --> 0:20:58.840 pattern on the black and white. Oh yeah, exactly. So, 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:01.320 so if you had a pattern of squares and circles, 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:04.160 it's going to match that pattern of square. Yes, it's 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:07.200 really really neat. I would love to see that stuff 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:09.400 in action. There's a video you can look up. It's 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:13.639 out there on YouTube. You can google the names of 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:15.959 the researchers I mentioned and and it will come up 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.280 on YouTube. All right, well, we'll definitely link to that 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:20.800 as well on our our website and on Twitter, because 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:23.600 this is something I've got to see and share. Yeah, 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:29.280 but sometimes camouflage won't cut it. Yeah, because even advanced 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:34.480 optical camouflage has limitations. It might require bulky equipment or 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:39.720 probably only work in one directions, just hard to look convincing. Basically, 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:42.000 it may take time for it to make that change, 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:44.239 Like it may not be so instantaneous. If you are 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:48.399 in motion, then clearly, you know, even wearing camouflage, you're 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:51.800 going to break up that that scenery that someone's looking at, 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:53.560 and then they're going to see that something is there, 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:56.320 even if they can't immediately recognize what that is. That's right. 0:21:56.359 --> 0:22:00.480 So with camouflage, remember you're not disappearing. Even if your 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:04.240 camouflage works really well. The observer is still looking at you. 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:08.400 They're seeing you. They're just not recognizing that you are 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:10.760 what you are, that you're separate from the environment that 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:14.399 you're in. What if you actually wanted to literally disappear, 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:18.800 to to appear as if there was nothing there at all, 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:22.159 the light just passes straight through you. So, Joe, I 0:22:22.200 --> 0:22:25.240 have a feeling, especially since I'm looking at my notes 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:27.080 and I see how it's laid out, that you want 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:30.280 to talk about meta materials. Meta materials they're one of 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:33.760 those magic things in current engineering. Yeah. I never met 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:37.679 a material I didn't like, Joe, but thank you. So 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:40.720 meta materials are synthetic. Let's get that all the way first. 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:43.960 These are synthetic materials that have been made by man. 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:47.080