Thermally Controlled, Active Imperceptible Artificial Skin in Visible-to-Infrared Range

Abstract

Cephalopods' extraordinary ability to hide into any background has inspired researchers to reproduce the intriguing ability to readily camouflage in the infrared (IR) and visible spectrum but this still remains as a conundrum. In this study, a multispectral imperceptible skin that enables human skin to actively blend into the background both in the IR-visible integrated spectrum only by simple temperature control with a flexible bi-functional device (active cooling and heating) is developed. The thermochromic layer on the outer surface of the device, which produces various colors based on device surface temperature, expands the cloaking range to the visible spectrum (thus visible-to-IR) and ultimately completes day-and-night stealth platform simply by controlling device temperature. In addition, the scalable pixelization of the device allows localized control of each autonomous pixel, enabling the artificial skin surface to adapt to the background of the sophisticated pattern with higher resolution and eventually heightening the level of imperceptibility. As this proof-of-concept can be directly worn and conceals the human skin in multispectral ranges, the work is expected to contribute to the development of next-generation soft covert military wearables and perhaps a multispectral cloak that belongs to cephalopods or futuristic camouflage gadgets in the movies.