[TML] 3d Invisible now

[Grimmund]

On Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 9:22 AM, Jerry W Barrington
<jerry.barrington at gmail.com> wrote:


> Well, all this "cloaking" tech is working on bending or eliminating incoming
> light.  But what about the IR coming off the target?  It *has* to come out,
> or you fry yourself.


Depends on what you're working with.  Humans produce heat as a
metabolic by-product.  Electronics produce some heat as a by-product,
too, but less and less as efficiency increases, and only when the
circuits are active.

Heat has to be vented, but even that can be worked around, at least
for short periods.

IIRC, Halderman's answer for powered infantry suits  was short term,
using a consumable refrigerant blown over the suit's heat exchanger
panels to lower their temperature to ambient.  This did an excellent
job of reducing signature- until you ran out of refrigerant.

You could probably do something similar with an air exchange mixer,
blowing ambient air over the heat exchanger and adding some sort of
consumable coolant (even compressed air would work) to lower the
temperature of the now-warm air back to ambient.

Whether you need to reduce or eliminate IR signature depends on the
particular situation at hand.  If you're dealing with something like a
sensor programed to respond to anything relatively close to human
temperature (~97 F) then you might be able to get by with a couple of
towels soaked in cold water.  If you're dealing with PEOPLE using a
sensor, then the standard camoflage and concealment tactics are still
applicable, too, since you're trying to prevent the people from
recognizing you as a threat.  Not showing up on the sensor achieves
that, but so does any technique that convinces the sensor operator
that you aren't a person.

Dan



-- 


If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have
to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.
-George Carlin