“Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud….” Said the great 19th century lawyer and politician Charles Sumner. Yes, war profiteering has been age old past time, because there’s a lot of money in war. But you could argue that Canadian design company HyperStealth Biotechnology Corp., “Leaders in Camouflage, Concealment and Deception,” a leading supplier of camouflage uniforms, is doing it’s best to protect our soldiers by keeping them hidden amidst of plethora of terrestrial backdrops.
HyperStealth currently holds the copyrights for over 10,000 patterns including “Smartcamo” which changes its color to match the background of the wearer in almost all environments. And now HyperStealth has taken their technologies straight into science fiction with “Quantum Stealth” – which if it does what it says it does, will be the world’s first invisibility cloak.
Both frightening and fascinating, the “Quantum Stealth” technology could have major implications for militaries. How do you win a war against an enemy you can’t see? The technology works like this: the material renders the person wearing it completely invisible by bending certain light waves – it also removes visual, infrared and thermal signatures and the person’s shadow.
In an article called “Quantum Stealth; The Invisible Military Becomes A Reality,” written on October 19th, CEO of HyperStealth Guy Cramer writes, “for reasons of security, I can’t discuss details about how it accomplishes the bending of light but I can explain how it might be used.” So the whole technology could literally be hocus pocus – the website offers quite convincing, almost comical, photoshop mockups – but Cramer say’s he showed off his the technology to Canada’s antiterrorism Federal Emergency Response Team to verify that he was not manipulating video or photo results. They have not verified to its legitimacy, but apparently “Quantum Stealth” works without cameras, batteries, lights or mirrors.
In the article, Cramer also gives a series of scenarios where “Quantum Stealth” might become useful. For instance, when a sniper is commissioned to take out a high profile target and there is no cover for miles or when a pilot must eject from his or her plane over enemy territory – the parachute could incorporate the material so the pilot can shield itself from hostile fire.
Cramer is currently publicizing the technology, because regular routes of official approval are “boring and time consuming,” and hopes that in getting the word out will get the attention of the right person. In answering questions as to whether the technology will make standard camouflage obsolete, Cramer states that “it might become your second choice behind Quantum Stealth if you’re Canadian, American or British and your group is authorized to use it.”
There are currently no plans to release the technology to the consumer market, but HyperStealth might release some sort of color changing material to the masses; perfect for hunting or freaking people out on the street.
