Giant Ginkgo

Masamune Shirow's manga series, animated movies and current TV series 'Ghost in the Shell' show characters using a type of camouflage that makes the wearer nearly invisible. (The movie 'Predator' and the last James Bond film also show variations of this idea.) The basic principle is a refinement of the World War II vehicle cloaking technology that was pioneered by the United States (and possibly Britain). The early experimental trucks would measure the value of light on one side of the vehicle and reproduce the intensity on the other side using a grid of lights, at a distance the vehicles would blend into the horizon. The practicality of armored vehicles covered in light bulbs deterred any sort of real use for the technology.

In recent times there have been rumors and rumblings about American experimental stealth aircraft that possess a more advanced variant of the optical camouflage, utilizing an advanced fiber optic skin to produce a similar effect. Whether or not this is factual remains unknown at this time.

A couple of days ago a story broke about a real, rudimentary form of personal optical camouflage being shown by a researcher at Tokyo University. While it is quite dependent on the exact viewpoint of the observer, it is a pretty amazing acomplishment...