Arnold Schwarzenegger has played a number of iconic roles in his life. In the titular role of "The Terminator," he plays a nearly indestructible cyborg sent back in time to protect the interests of an artificial intelligence system known as Skynet.
The future, as told by "The Terminator," is terrifying.
In another 80’s blockbuster, Schwarzenegger plays a mercenary forced to track down the Predator, an invisible creature lurking through the jungles of Guatemala.
The world, as told by "Predator," is also terrifying. Now imagine both of those scenarios combined into one.
Engineers at the Wuhan University in China have developed a small, 3D-printed robot. Using plasmonic displays, the robot can alter its skin to match its surroundings.
"The key to the biomimetic technology is realizing electrically driven actuation of broad reflection bands, which may be partially enabled by some of the existing 'e-paper' or 'e-chem' display approaches, including electrophoretic, cholesteric liquid crystalline, and electrowetting,” the team wrote in a research article entitled "Mechanical Chameleon through Dynamic Real-time Plasmonic Tuning."
This robot clearly has a long way to go before it’s capable of stalking Arnold Schwarzenegger through a rainforest. As the video shows, the robot can’t even get around without a motorized pushcart. It’s camouflage abilities are also limited at this time, as it can only blend into red, green and blue backgrounds.
But the team does hope to eventually create a model capable of "fully merging the mechanical chameleon with the surroundings."
"Although the current mechanical chameleon can perform against backgrounds that have only three primary colors, our technology can also interface with a complex environment and provide a new approach for artificial active camouflage," the researchers wrote.
Now you see it, but soon, you won’t.
