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Within the EDA funded project ACAMSII, “Adaptive camouflage for the soldier”, a future soldier system is being developed and implemented that provides adaptive camouflage against all relevant sensor threats, ranging from visible to thermal and radar. To provide adaptive camouflage in the visible domain LEDs are integrated in the clothing. A proof-of-principle demonstrator of this subsystem was developed and implemented by TNO in collaboration with its international ACAMS partners. The demonstrator consists of a panel of clothing material with printed camouflage pattern embedded with LEDs. The camouflage pattern adapts to the background and lighting conditions by means of a camera and a light sensor. The camera registers the background colours and pattern and the light sensor registers the illumination of the panel. In situations in which the printed camouflage provides sufficient protection (in darker backgrounds) the LEDs are switched off. The small LEDs are invisible when switched off and blend together when they are turned on and are viewed from larger distances (e.g. 50 m). When turned on, the colours and luminance of the LEDs are matched with that of the background. A control unit (mini-laptop) is connected to the LEDs, the camera, and the light sensor. Using the camera image, light sensor output and printed pattern as input, it calculates the LED input levels required to generate the desired output (camouflage pattern), taking into account the light reflected from the clothing and the input-output relationship of the LEDs. The control unit automatically updates the LED output to changes in background and illumination. In our presentation we will show how the control loop is implemented and demonstrate that the system adapts well to changes in background and lighting. Different implementations are presented and discussed.
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