Chameleon-Inspired Camouflage

Abstract

Chameleons are nature's masters of disguise, blending into their surroundings by changing the spacing between guanine nanocrystals in their skin. This trick alters the wavelengths of light their skin absorbs and reflects. Inspired by the chameleon's clever camouflage, engineers in China have developed an artificial camouflage system that takes advantage of the light-reflecting and light-absorbing properties of nanoparticles (ACS Nano 2016, DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5b07472). Researchers led by Guoping Wang of Wuhan University and Sheng Chu of Sun Yat-sen University created arrays of gold "nanodomes" roughly 50 nm across and packaged them into cells filled with a gel electrolyte containing silver ions. By electrodepositing or stripping silver from the surface of the gold nanodomes, the researchers change the nanoparticles' plasmonic characteristics and therefore the color of the cells. Wang and Chu's team created a "mechanical chameleon" covered with "scales" represented by the nanodome-based cells. The scales are connected to cameras that analyze