Scientists create fabric that mimics octopus camouflage

The octopus's ability to camouflage itself has inspired a new kind of thin, flexible fabric that can automatically match patterns, US researchers said.

Creatures of the ocean known as cephalopods - including cuttlefish, squid and octopuses - are naturally equipped with sensors in their skin that help to mimic the look of their surroundings.

By closely studying how they do it, engineers and biologists taking part in a three-year-long US navy-funded research programme have created a material that acts in a similar way.

The team's initial result, described in this week's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is far from ready for commercial use.

But architects, interior designers, fashion houses and the military all have their eyes on its eventual capability to provide a first-of-its-kind man-made camouflaging material.

"If you illuminate it with white light and different patterns, it will automatically respond to that and produce a pattern that matches," said lead author John Rogers, a professor in the department of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois. "Having said that, we are a long way from colour-morphing wallpaper, but it is a step that could lead in that direction."