British military wants to use E Ink to cloak tanks on the battlefield

There are a number of ways tanks can be camouflaged on the battlefield: with giant covers, paint, leaves and twigs, to name a few. British defense firm BAE Systems has another idea: use E Ink to disguise the vehicles of war.

A set of sensors connected to a tank's exterior would first take in the surrounding environment — analyzing the terrain around the vehicle. Info recorded such as colors, shapes and lines would then be projected by the E Ink on the tank's body, thereby camouflaging it.

The advantage to using E Ink on a tank for camouflage is obviously its ability to adapt to any environment. A tank in a desert would appear sandy in color and texture, whereas one in a mountainous region would be rocky, etc.

BAE System's E Ink camouflage is by far, one of the coolest uses for E Ink that we've ever heard of. We're not talking about just some little monochrome display in a Victorinox SSD, we're talking about near-invisibility with a little intelligent processing.

Although only a concept, BAE Systems is confident that it can get the technology up and ready for trial in Afghanistan within the next few years. The technology is just too expensive right now to deploy into battle. Think about how much money would be lost if a tank with E Ink went down from an RPG. It's somewhere in the millions of dollars.