TechnologyJeff Soyer on 25 Jan 2013 10:19 am
If you are worried that drones are going to soon track your every move, you will soon be able to pop on a hoodie or burqa that will make you all-but-invisible to eyes in the sky.
The fashionable and security-conscious can now purchase “Stealth Wear,” clothing made from a silver-infused fabric that reflects heat, thereby making its wearer invisible to thermal imaging cameras.
Writers of “prepper books” have a new chapter to add.
5 Responses to “Stealth Wear”
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on 25 Jan 2013 at 10:38 am # Ricky
Sounds great, but the thermal infrared covers a large portion of the spectrum.
Also, what happens when that silver-infused cape/hoodie/whatever warms up under body heat?
I can see where it might work briefly (seconds to a couple minutes) under some conditions, but not as a general IR “invisibility cloak.”
on 25 Jan 2013 at 10:41 am # Ricky
Just a clarification about “large portion of the spectrum.” This means there are IR wavelengths where you will be just about as visible as you are at visible wavelengths.
All that someone hunting you has to do is tune their IR sensor (or filter it) to the right wavelength — and bingo! There you are.
on 25 Jan 2013 at 2:38 pm # Sigivald
This guy’s kind of an idiot. (Specifically, the “statement-making ‘artist’” variety of idiot.)
Oh, yes, thick metallized fabric will “reflect” that IR a bit.
(Which is why one of those mylar emergency blankets keeps you warm… and why a thick wool coat will also “hide” you from an IR camera for a while; turns out they’re just seeing heat, and it doesn’t matter if it’s “reflected” or “absorbed”.)
Which will, of course, make you very, very hot under it.
So either you overheat, or the parts of you that aren’t covered show up even better on the IR camera (and most likely both). Plus eventually you’ll heat up that metallized fabric in any case…
And the camera systems (like the Predator’s AN/AAS-52) in drones have plain old image intensification systems too, that don’t depend on IR… so, er… this might help, kinda, for a short time, on a really dark night, assuming that the Raytheon military-grade cameras aren’t any better than whatever he took his test shots with…
That’s about the last thing I’d worry about doing if I was “prepping” - you can’t be invisible. It’s far better to be perfectly visible and look harmless.
on 25 Jan 2013 at 5:49 pm # Ricky
Even worse news: your house is essentially transparent to long-wave IR. At least to the point where heat sources within can be identified. And all this can be done from the ground and the air.
on 25 Jan 2013 at 11:35 pm # Fyooz
and a plain black 55-gal trash can liner works just as well, is cheaper, and won’t make you cry like a beeyotch when it warms up to you and you have to abandon it.
the border crossing Latinos have been using them for years.