Structural coloration

Nanotechnology

Biological system

Camouflage

Photonic crystal

Microfluidics

Biology

Metamaterial

Artificial intelligence

Materials science

Programming language

SIGNAL (programming language)

Computer science

Cloaking

Computer vision

Optoelectronics

Journal of Bionic Engineering

To adapt to a complex and variable environment, self-adaptive camouflage technology is becoming more and more important in all kinds of military applications by overcoming the weakness of the static camouflage. In nature, the chameleon can achieve self-adaptive camouflage by changing its skin color in real time with the change of the background color. To imitate the chameleon skin, a camouflaged film controlled by a color-changing microfluidic system is proposed in this paper. The film with microfluidic channels fabricated by soft materials can achieve dynamic cloaking and camouflage by circulating color liquids through channels inside the film. By sensing and collecting environmental color change information, the control signal of the microfluidic system can be adjusted in real time to imitate chameleon skin. The microstructure of the film and the working principle of the microfluidic color-changing system are introduced. The mechanism to generate the control signal by information processing of background colors is illustrated. “Canny” double-threshold edge detection algorithm and color similarity are used to analyze and evaluate the camouflage. The tested results show that camouflaged images have a relatively high compatibility with environmental backgrounds and the dynamic cloaking effect can be achieved.

A Camouflaged Film Imitating the Chameleon Skin with Color-Changing Microfluidic Systems Based on the Color Information Identification of Background