'Invisibility Shield' Could Turn Tanks Into Cows

Take a gander at the picture -- any clue what you're looking at? Me neither, I thought it was the original Fallout beta or something. "I see an alligator eating a child." Okaaaaaaay, now I see a psychiatric evaluation. But apparently there's a tank in there somewhere. The only thing is it's wearing an invisibility cloak. Kind of like I use to infiltrate the women's locker room. "GW? That's not an invisibility cloak -- that's a wig and a dress." Shhhhhhhhh, you'll blow my cover. "Blow your cover? You have a full-blown beard -- at least f***ing shave!" No way, you know how long it took me to grow this thing?!

The patented system -- called Adaptiv -- uses a matrix of hexagonal "pixels" that can change their temperature very rapidly. On-board cameras sweep the area to pick up the background scenery and display that infra-red signature on the vehicle.

This allows even moving tanks to be effectively invisible in the infra-red spectrum, or mimic other objects. "The tank skin essentially becomes a big infra red TV," BAE Head of External Communications Mike Sweeney[!!!!!!!11] told Wired.co.uk. "You can display anything you want on it -- including a cow -- while the rest of the vehicle blends into the background."

The current system works in the infra-red spectrum, which could hide vehicles from heat-seeking missiles, drones and heat-sensitive goggles.

That's actually pretty clever. Still, nothing is clever enough until we have optical invisibility shields, which is exactly why I've captured the Invisible Woman and am gonna inject her with this truth serum to find out how they work. *flicking syringe* "You do know she escaped the last time you opened the door, right?" Wait -- WHAT?! *trips, stabs self in chest* I...still sleep with my blankey. "LOLWUT?!" I want to kiss a man before I die.

Short but very worthwhile video of the technology in action after the jump.

'Invisibility Cloak' Makes Tanks Look Like Cows [wired]

Thanks to Melissa, who invented an invisibility cloak for no other reason than to sneak out of work early. Pfft, what better reason is there?!

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