camouflage

Bike thieves can't steal it if they don't know it's there ... This remarkable motorcycle looks for all the world like a telecom signal box covered in graffiti – but at the touch of a button it rises up on wheels and rides away.

In many cases nature has better versions of our tech. The newest example comes from a common insect in your backyard, which makes nanoscale soccer balls that hide it from predators – inspiring new, better UV protection and maybe even cloaking tech.

Inspired by the blue-ringed octopus, researchers have created a technology that rapidly changes color and appearance under various kinds of light, enabling camouflaging and signaling. The tech could be used in the military, medicine, and robotics.

Saab's new Ultra-Lightweight Camouflage Screen not only lets soldiers blend into the foliage and blocks infrared to foil heat seeking sensors, but it also hides them from radar sweeps, while still letting them receive GPS signals and radio communications.

A new light-activated ink can change color on demand. It’s made up of colored microbeads that rise in response to different wavelengths of light to change a surface color, which could be useful for new displays or active camouflage systems.

While we've already seen materials that allow people or objects to hide from heat-detecting cameras, they're typically only effective at one ambient temperature. An experimental new material, however, can be user-adjusted to work over a wide range.

New Atlas asks Peter Murphy from the University of South Australia a single question as part of our regular One Big Question series: What goes into making a color-changing military tank?

Besides having tentacles, squid and octopi are also both known for their color-changing skin. Well, soft-bodied robots may soon also share that attribute, thanks to research being carried out at Cornell University.

What with having to do testing on public roads, carmakers don't have the luxury of keeping their products hidden until launch like other manufacturers. Instead, they try to camouflage their prototypes as best they can. Ford has revealed some of the newer methods it is using to do so.

Researchers from the University of California at Irvine are developed a stick-on covering that could let soldiers hide from infrared light. It utilizes the same protein that's found in squids' color-changing skin.