In 2003, Japan successfully developed a high-tech suit that allowed a person to become invisible to others. However, this technology only made part of the body transparent, leaving the head and shoulders still visible. Now, American scientists are undertaking a more ambitious plan to make people completely invisible!
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| Imagine a soldier kneeling in front of a statue: part of his body blends in with decorative pebbles on the wall. Five minutes later, he changes “color” because a different background is behind him. In this context, he perfectly matches the scenery! | The soldier is wearing a uniform that changes color according to the surrounding environment! |
Dr. Kemp returned to his armchair. Just as he leaned back, he felt an object entering the room. Perhaps it was a draft, as he saw nothing out of the ordinary. Suddenly, a voice echoed, seemingly from nowhere. It was eerie! Then, the chair in the corner of the room moved towards him, as if enchanted. Moreover, the seat surface sank as if someone was sitting down. Finally, like in a mythical movie, a piece of firewood flew up from a distance and dove straight into the fireplace!
Was Dr. Kemp dizzy from two glasses of sherry? No, this is a scene from the movie “The Invisible Man,” produced in 1993, based on a mysterious character created by writer Herbert George Wells in the late 19th century, which was highly successful when adapted for film.
Without needing cinema, in the near future, humans may achieve “invisibility” through innovations being developed by a team of American scientists. Indeed, at the Natick military research center in Massachusetts, researchers are engrossed in creating high-tech uniforms that will give soldiers the greatest advantage in combat. For instance, they are studying an “instant uniform” that can be directly “draped” over soldiers, a uniform that is opaque in water but transparent on land, and most uniquely, a uniform that can render a person invisible!
Here, familiar techniques used to help soldiers “outsmart” sophisticated electronic detection systems are not employed. For example, devices that prevent the body from emitting infrared rays, or materials used in stealth aircraft that prevent radar waves from “locking on.” The researchers at Natick aim for a system that makes it impossible for opponents to see those wearing the uniform! Compared to camouflage uniforms, this outfit is more advanced, as the latter loses effectiveness once the background changes. This sparked the idea for scientists: to create a uniform that changes color based on the surrounding environment! Imagine a soldier kneeling in front of a statue, blending in with the decorative pebbles on the wall. Five minutes later, he changes “color” because a different background is behind him. In this situation, he perfectly matches the scenery!
How does this unusual uniform work? This is a long-term project under the Future Warrior 2025 program, aimed at seeking high-tech combat uniforms for American soldiers over the next 20 years. Jerry Whitaker, the information officer at Natick, states: “We are very proud of the progress made in the field of camouflage. However, it is still too early to announce technical details.” In general, information about the “invisible suit” remains “invisible”!
It is challenging to unveil this mystery, as the path American scientists are following is known: it all falls under “smart clothing.” Besides concealing the body, this attire has additional special functions, such as a coat-phone that helps transmit and receive sound (with hidden receiving and transmitting components), or a filming scarf (with a concealed camera inside the scarf)… There is no need to go to America to discover these unique products, as they are also being developed in France, specifically in Grenoble, where there is a satellite of the Research and Development Institute of France Télécom. Here, scientists are studying a material considered fundamental to the American “invisible clothing”: optical fibers. The research team in Grenoble, led by André Weill, has utilized this type of fiber to create a flexible screen. Using optical fibers, they produced a chessboard with 64 squares, where all fibers concentrated in one square are connected to a diode, essentially a bulb serving as a light source.
This light source is captured by the fibers and emitted externally. Thus, the fibers transform the “squares” they gather into a uniform area, radiating light at the same level. A type of pixel, like the pixels that make up a television screen! The contrast in light between all the “squares” creates an image, and the variation in the timing of this contrast allows for dynamic images to be generated.
The model created by France Télécom is considered a precursor to the “invisible suit.” If the suit is the size of a small screen (30×30 cm), this screen has only 64 pixels, which is too few compared to the 1,024 pixels commonly found in your living room. However, simply multiplying this pixel count can enhance clarity. Thus, despite its small size, this new screen can transmit any image. The remaining challenge is to enlarge the screen to ultimately achieve the “invisible” effect.
Now, imagine that these optical fibers are not only distributed over a surface corresponding to that of a television screen but cover the entire uniform of soldiers. Consequently, the outfit becomes dazzling, and the soldier transforms into a giant mobile screen, on which geometric images are no longer transmitted but images of the surrounding environment via cameras affixed throughout the suit.
These cameras continuously capture all surrounding images and relay them to the system’s “black box”—which contains memory and microprocessor circuits—integrated into the uniform. In turn, this actual laptop transmits information to the diodes that illuminate the optical fibers. As a result, images of the environment frequently appear on the soldier’s body: bricks captured by the rear camera are displayed on his abdomen, while barbed wire is shown on his chest… Ultimately, the soldier becomes completely transparent! However, this theory still faces many obstacles. André Weill explains: “Take our screen model as an example; it is powered by a 3.5-volt battery for about 2 hours. If it were a screen covering the entire uniform, think about how much energy would be needed. At that point, the soldier would have to carry numerous batteries!!” Next is the diode issue, the light source to which the optical fibers connect. André Weill continues: “Our model requires 64 diodes, one for each pixel, but to create an invisible suit, thousands would be necessary. This makes the outfit cumbersome and unwieldy.”
However, the research on smart fibers is still in its early stages, and advancements in miniaturizing diodes and batteries will undoubtedly yield significant results. To convince skeptics who doubt or do not believe that one day humans will wear clothing made from optical fibers, scientists suggest looking back to the early 20th century to understand everything. During that time, only natural fibers like wool, cotton, and silk were known, but by the 1930s, when nylon was invented, this synthetic fiber became ubiquitous. Who today would dare claim that optical fibers won’t achieve similar success to nylon in the future?
Hong Van
