At IDTechEx we go beyond simply announcing advances in printed and thin film electronics and electrics. We try to present the needs for new materials and patterning in this category and the uses that will emerge if practice can follow theory. For example metamaterials have been described that begin to confer invisibility and properties enabling many other new functions and components but practice has more to do to follow theory. Here is another example:
1. Optical camouflage
In 2003, scientists at the University of Tokyo in Japan first demonstrated a different approach - this is "optical camouflage". Rather than bending waves around an object, this approach uses virtual reality.
2. Retroflectives
To imagine an example, a jacket is coated in a 'retro-reflective' material, with a surface structure of micro beads. This surface only reflects light back in the direction it came from and that images are reflected clearly even in bright sunlight.
A camera - potentially laminar - records what is going on behind the jacket's wearer.