In the paper titled “Mechanical Chameleon through Dynamic Real-Time Plasmonic Tuning” published in the ACS Nano Journal, researchers created a 3D printed chameleon that changes its colour accordingly as it rolls past different coloured backgrounds.
“Optical invisibility represents one of the greatest challenges in military and biomimetic research“, the authors explain. This is why they focused on real-time light manipulation making it for objects able to match colour setting in an environment.
The mechanical chameleon that was created to show off their work, was 3D printed in ABS on a da Vinci 1.0 printer by XYZprinting and then covered in with plasmonic displays. These displays are made from small sheets of glass with a grid of holes measuring 50 nanometers wide and are then coated in gold. The next layer consists of an electrolyte gel with silver ions. Ultimately, sensors were added that can detect light and colour of the surroundings and adjust the electric field accordingly.
Check out the video below, to see the stunning result of their study creating artificial camouflage:
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