paper article is based on

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-73167-0

This headline is wrong. This has nothing to do with thermal cameras. It's "cloaking" by making it appear to have the same bulk thermal properties as it's surroundings.

Yes. Unfortunately many people are reading this thinking it's a FLIR invisibility cloak.

FYI Ukraine already has FLIR invisibility cloaks (fancy camo space blankets): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfdF3iIwoX4

This is thermal cloak, explained here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM2RJi4mRZ0&t=52s

Notably it only works after the heat flow settles back down to equilibrium. If you're moving, it doesn't work.

Which seems like it would be good for fixed installations that need to remain undetected, no?

The other caveat is that it only works if you're embedded inside a solid object. ;)

If you're in free space, the surface can't shine its IR differently in different directions, so under FLIR it will just look like the average ambient temperature. This is no better than existing (cheap and light) space blanket camo systems.

So a "heatpump cooling", store concentrated heat and inject it into the ground would work much better?

This is gonna be going straight to Ukraine

I certainly hope so!

> Although the current cloak represents a major advance, the researchers want to develop more sophisticated versions capable of performing additional functions. One particularly important goal is to conceal objects that produce heat themselves

I read the entire thing thinking it could cloak a soldier

It could cloak a well insulated soldier from being a dark spot on the background.

I believe the Russians tried something similar in Ukraine with cloaking themselves to fool infrared drones.

Using 50 cent Mylar blankets which ... did not work like they hoped from the videos I've seen.

We have AIs hacking people's computers and brains, and now we have the Major's thermo-optic camouflage. They were right to keep the newest Ghost in the Shell set in 2029-2030. Seems like it's right on time.

Next cyberpunk wizpop toy: thermoptic cameoflage.

The future is turning out to be fascinating as concerning.

Maybe this could be used to hide a cold spot from a wafer bake pin.

A Faraday for heat, eh?

I've always wanted to hide apples inside pears.

Does this work for things that emit heat?

The article mentions thats the next step

Doesn't everything emit heat? :)

no, the vacuum of space does not emit heat

Interstellar space behaves as an almost perfect blackbody radiator, at a temperature of 2.725 Kelvin, due to the cosmic microwave background. As such, it does "emit heat", albeit an extremely small, but measurable amount.

Let me answer your question with a question: Does the infrared camera detect emitted heat?

Not clear where your question is coming from, but it detects heat that's emitted as infrared radiation.

Generally? Yes.

In this case? No idea.

- future soldier 2 loading....

Wow, a blanket!

More like an iron maiden

When you cover yourself with the blanket, others see the blanket. When you cover yourself with this, others see background.

Bad luck skynet

And that Predator monster!

Is dismissing people’s work so rudely how you make yourself feel superior?

that guy taught me something new about glass in a snarky fashion , while you delivered pure snark. no comment to add, merely an observation

you can't make a drone entirely out of glass

Can you fly a drone that's covered with a cloak?

Probably not very well if the drone is the typical (quad)copter type since the shield will likely obstruct the airflow from the propellers reducing lift. The added weight of the shield is also likely to be a problem in small drones as most are already weight constrained. Although in small electric copters like those used in Ukraine, I'm not sure how often thermal imaging is used as a primary detection vector (due to size, distance and daytime thermal delta from below).

Thermal is definitely a primary vector in detecting larger drones like the Reaper due to large combustion or jet engines, but in that case the challenge isn't cloaking the drone, it's cloaking the heat of the vented exhaust that's likely leaving a thermal 'contrail' across the sky.