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Comment by whatsakandr | Hacker News Reader

This headline is wrong. This has nothing to do with thermal cameras. It's "cloaking" by making it appear to have the same bulk thermal properties as it's surroundings.

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Yes. Unfortunately many people are reading this thinking it's a FLIR invisibility cloak.

FYI Ukraine already has FLIR invisibility cloaks (fancy camo space blankets): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfdF3iIwoX4

This is thermal cloak, explained here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM2RJi4mRZ0&t=52s

Notably it only works after the heat flow settles back down to equilibrium. If you're moving, it doesn't work.

Which seems like it would be good for fixed installations that need to remain undetected, no?

The other caveat is that it only works if you're embedded inside a solid object. ;)

If you're in free space, the surface can't shine its IR differently in different directions, so under FLIR it will just look like the average ambient temperature. This is no better than existing (cheap and light) space blanket camo systems.

Well, could be still useful for hiding things in bulk materials ?

From scientific uses (sensors, cables or supports not disrupting experiments) to smuggling/hiding listening devices/trackers or boobytraps in bulk shipments, etc.

The main problem with space blankets is that they eventually heat up. So they only work for a little while, and then have to re-equilibrate back to ambient, then you put them back on, then take off to re-equilibrate...

So this new tech appears to overcome that shortcoming, for static objects.

More likely craft looking to reduce heat seeking missles or detection. Think better heat diffusion on helicopter or tank exhaust. Fixed installations would use thermal nets or space blankets.

So a "heatpump cooling", store concentrated heat and inject it into the ground would work much better?

There are loads of videos of Ukrainian FPV drones with thermal cameras hunting Russians trying to hide using something like space blankets. The blankets work up to a point, if the target were completely covered they would be hard to spot, but if parts of the soldier are not covered or are revealed during movement, it doesn't work out well for the target.

The videos remind me of the scene in Dune where Paul is hiding from the hunter-seeker that tracks based on movement.

> It's "cloaking" by making it appear to have the same bulk thermal properties as it's surroundings.

I'm not sure what you think the difference is?

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