Thermal gloves and undies might keep us warm in winter, but they're not exactly cool, are they? They also don't hide you from thermal cameras, so if you've ever got tired of being spotted by thermal cameras, you can wear this dude’s clothes and never be seen by them again.
Adam Harvey, who is an artist, has been experimenting in what is known as ‘counter-surveillance fashion’, a brand of stealthy clothing that is designed to fool thermal imaging systems like those used on military drones.
Known as the Stealth Wear collection, the clothing consists of an anti-drone scarf and hoodie that completely blocks the wearer’s thermal signature from being easily identified. He’s also being developing clothes that block communications to and from phones, CamoFlash, which detects camera flashes and flashes powerful LEDs to stop cameras from getting images (ideal for those celebrities being bothered by the press) and also a thing known as CV Dazzle, which is an experiment with hair and makeup designed to confuse facial recognition.
In the image above the developed hoodie has been purposefully left without a belly to show how it masks the thermal signature of the upper portion of the model's torso. Of course you could always wear it like that if you really wanted to, but that kinda negates the point really, doesn't it?
Admittedly, the practicalities of such technology are a bit lost on the general public. It’s unlikely most people will be particularly bothered about hiding from thermal imaging cameras, but the technology is definitely an intriguing prospect for military applications.
Harvey's work is however somewhat intriguing, purely because he's taking steps to help people remain concealed in what is fast becoming an age where constant surveillance of almost anyone anywhere is possible. For those who are paranoid about this sort of thing you may well be wanting to deck yourself out in the latest thermal-concealing clothing.
The thermal-masking clothing would be a great tool for soldiers trying to evade thermal imaging systems built into aircraft and weaponry, and it’ll be interesting to see exactly how it is adopted going forward.
