Method of spectrally camouflaging a structure with a surrounding environment
OwnerWilliam Boone Daniels, II, Andreas Hiekeinventors
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Abstract
Disclosed are methods to produce composite materials, which contain customized mixes of nano- and/or micro-particles with tailored electromagnetic spectral properties. In some defense-related applications, the use of such materials enables an improved spectral match between different structures, such as vehicles or buildings with the surrounding environment at least in the VIS and NIR wavelength range. This can camouflage the structures, and reduce the detectability thereof by ground-, air- or space-based multi-spectral long-range imaging systems, including aircrafts, drones, and satellites, and thus, generally delay, complicate, or eliminate detection or classification of the camouflaged structures.
Claims39
A method of spectrally camouflaging a structure with a surrounding environment at least within the VIS and NIR range comprising:
- measuring a broadband spectral reflectance at least within the visible (VIS) and Near Infrared (NIR) range at one or more locations within the vicinity of a structure;
- providing a plurality of distinct populations of nano- or micro-particles and/or of nano- or micro-cavities, a first population of said plurality of distinct populations comprising one or more of distinct size distributions, shape distributions, chemical compositions, crystal structures, and crystallinity distributions, relative to a second population of said plurality of distinct populations;
- forming a composite material by embedding a mixture of the first population and the second population in a carrier material, wherein forming comprises selecting a composition ratio of the first population to the second population, and selecting a density of the mixture relative to the carrier material, such that the resulting broadband spectral reflectance of said composite material at least within the VIS and NIR range approximates said measured broadband spectral reflectance as a result of interference effects between at least some of the nano- or micro-particles and/or nano- or micro-cavities of the plurality of distinct populations;
- and
- using the composite material on at least part of a surface of the structure.
A method of spectrally matching a structure with a surrounding environment at least within the VIS and NIR range comprising:
- measuring a broadband spectral reflectance at least within the visible (VIS) and Near Infrared (NIR) range of an environment of a structure;
- providing a composite material, the composite material comprising a carrier material, a first population of particles, and a second population of particles, wherein the first population of particles is distinct from the second population of particles, and the composition ratio of the first population to the second population is selected such that a broadband spectral reflectance of the composite material is within the measured broadband spectral reflectance range of the environment of the structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.