15-01-11 Defense contractor BAE Systems develops cloaked tanks

Defense contractor BAE Systems is working on an optical camouflage technology that will make tanks and other vehicles blend in with their surroundings.Defense contractor BAE Systems is working on the technology, which uses a "display system within the structure of the vehicle" to display images captured by cameras on one side of the vehicle on the opposite side so that the vehicle "blends in with the background scenery," company spokesman Mike Sweeney explained today."We also have a way to protect that structure from battle damage and that's obviously key," he added.The images would be constantly updated,keeping the tank camouflaged as it rolls through the landscape.The concept of wrapping a vehicle or person in real-time images of its surroundings has been worked on for years.An optical camouflage jacket developed by Susumu Tachi and his colleagues at the University of Tokyo,for example,made the Internet rounds in the mid-2000s."Pretty much all the systems that have been cooked up so far all use a projector that picks up the background," Sweeney said."Where they differ is in how the image is then displayed." He is tight-lipped on the details of BAE's display system, called eCamouflage,but said to think in terms of something like a flat screen television.This would make displays work relatively easily on flat surfaces,such as depicted in the concept image of the tank above."I honestly don't know how we are doing it on other areas" such as the front of the tank,Sweeney added,though he noted that is indeed the plan.