--- title: "Super-Flexible Display Could Enable Real-Life Active Camouflage" description: "A team of engineers from Rutgers University in New Jersey have created a 3D-printed smart gel that can change its shape when exposed to light." date: "2021-01-05" modified: "2021-01-05" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/super-flexible-display-real-life-active-camouflage" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "camouflage" - "hydrogel" - "the digest" --- # Super-Flexible Display Could Enable Real-Life Active Camouflage ![A team of engineers from Rutgers University in New Jersey have created a 3D-printed smart gel that can change its shape when exposed to light.]() *\Image: Image via Pxhere/Victor Tangermann\* ## Smart Camouflage A team of engineers from Rutgers University [have created]() a stretchy, 3D-printed material that can change color on demand — an exotic material that could lead to an entirely new type of military camouflage. As detailed in a [new study]() published in the journal *ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces* this month, the smart gels were inspired by the color-changing skin of cuttlefish, octopuses and squids. "Electronic displays are everywhere and despite remarkable advances, such as becoming thinner, larger and brighter, they’re based on rigid materials, limiting the shapes they can take and how they interface with 3D surfaces," senior author Howon Lee, assistant professor at Rutgers, said in [a statement](). "Our research supports a new engineering approach featuring camouflage that can be added to soft materials and create flexible, colorful displays," he added. ## Stretchy Pants Despite holding plenty of water, hydrogels can keep their shape and maintain a solid state. They're abundant in nature and can **even** be found inside the human body. To create the camouflage material, the engineers incorporated a light-sensing nanomaterial inside the shape-shifting gel, turning it into a flexible, camouflage-like skin. As a result, the gel could act as an "artificial muscle" that can respond to changes in light by contracting. The team is now looking to increase the sensitivity of their smart gel and ways to scale up production. **READ MORE:** [3D-Printed Smart Gel Changes Shape When Exposed to Light]() \[*Rutgers*\] **More on camouflage:** *[Researchers Invent Material That Could Create Invisibility Cloak]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()