January 22, 2003; The Army has given the New Jersey Institute of Technology an $838,000 contract to develop a new "smart paint" for combat vehicles. This coating, containing nano-machines, could detect when it is scratched or corroded and repair itself, preventing the vehicle from being exposed by heat leaks or radar reflections. The paint would even be able to notify the vehicle crew when the coating is unable to repair itself. Further developments of this nano-paint technology are expected to lead to tanks that can change colors as the move through various types of terrain or as the weather and sunlight change.--Stephen V Cole
--> Anyone care to hazard a guess as to whether this will actually work, and if so, when? This sounds like something I'd read in a B-level sci-fi novel. Sounds really cool, though. Wonder if we'll be able to get it to work on peoples' clothes, too, so we can have self-adapting camouflage. Sounds like a cross between James Bond and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon.
--Phoenix Rising |