WWI's 'Dazzle' Camouflage Seemed Effective Due to Unexpected Optical Trick
gizmodo.com
gizmodo.com
> After addressing problems with Blodgett's analysis and control experiment, we found results indicating a twist of only about 7°, but a much larger “hysteresis” effect (∼19–23°) where perceived direction was drawn to the horizon regardless of dazzle. This effect combined both constructively and destructively with “twist”, depending on the direction of the target ship.
Then specifically this part is very suspicious, zero error is unlikely in any circumstance:
> A uniform white and black background were assumed to produce zero errors. In the case of white, Blodgett (1919) claimed this was borne out by experiment, though no details (e.g., number of trials or observers) were provided. Furthermore, there is no evidence (or even a suggestion) that the black condition was run.
> Results were also reported for ships painted uniform black and uniform grey (e.g., see Table 2 in S2). These conditions were not mentioned by Blodgett until his results, and it is not clear under what seascape and weather conditions these controls were run, how many trials were performed, what the true directions were, or which or how many participants took part. In fact, there is nothing in Blodgett's report to suggest that these conditions were performed by any of the six participants mentioned above.
https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/zebra-stripes-...
0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertram_Fox_Hayes 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Olympic 2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM_U-103
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_destroyer_Maikaze#Con...
Mind you, this also explains why dazzle was a promising idea in the first place. Calculating Angle On Bow was already the hard part of ship-against-ship targeting, why not try to make it even harder?
With some trig you can get relative headings by taking bearing measurements, waiting 30s, and then taking more, but speed must be known.
To get full heading and speed you can do the same thing multiple times but now we're in a least squares problem and it has plenty of singularities.
The most reliable method for me was to pass in front of the ship submerged the fire tail tubes or turn around if you have enough time.
Insanely difficult for fast moving targets.
I played so much SH games from the first days on, that I went and did my PhD on tracking using bearing measurements (albeit mostly applied and only a tiny theoretical contribution).
> we found results indicating a twist [due to dazzle] of only about 7°, but a much larger “hysteresis” effect (∼19–23°) where perceived direction was drawn to the horizon regardless of dazzle. This effect combined both constructively and destructively with “twist”, depending on the direction of the target ship.
Could have just said that...
> Unlike traditional camouflage, which helps objects blend into their surroundings, dazzle camouflage used stark geometric patterns to try to confuse German U-boat captains’ perception of a ship’s direction and speed, making it harder to target.
I'm not saying that these camo patterns don't work, but the particulars (e.g. why it had to be rectangular pixels, not hexagons or nature-inspired fractals) are often connected to fashions. My personal opinion is that dazzle camo looks cool, by the way ;)
https://www.hagley.org/librarynews/razzle-dazzle-and-rangefi...
It won't "work right" on cameras that have permanent IR filters. Maybe. I haven't tested this in years.
I have a feeling that IR of the correct strength and frequency would be dimly visible to humans, though. Similar to cameras with monochrome night vision via IR LED.
(Now I wonder, how narrow-band such IR LED is, and if it could be made to emit a single frequency so sharp, it would create funny diffraction patterns off cameras' surfaces and lens imperfections, clobbering the high-frequency components of the image...)
I worked in enterprise FR, on one of the globally leading systems, as the lead developer. That scenario defeats pretty much all FR when from a single camera. It can be mitigated with multiple camera views, which few FR systems are setup for multiple quality views at every key location.
Meanwhile, positive facial identification attaches to all kinds of legal and intelligence infrastructure. Now, you can be charged with crimes, have a warrant executed against you, can be accused of supporting terrorists if you show up to a protest, etc.
I suppose I don't think the criticism is wrong, but it seems to presume that this is new information not previously understood rather than an intentional calculated risk.
If you don't think there is a disadvantage to looking different in a protest, think about the "qanon shaman" from 1/6 him looking different totally made him more of a target to being identified.
I don't think "camouflage" fits any definition of what Qanon Shaman was wearing, either in a general sense or in the tactical sense we're talking about here.
Also if you have a distinctive face paint then your image might be shared more, or just noticed more in the images that are shared to give more opportunities for people to recognize you or to remember your face to be recognized latter.
Also having a distinctive face would make it easier to track in different sets of footage especially when the technique was originally demoed in 2011.
It's not to say it wouldn't ever happen, but there's an order of magnitude difference between that and guaranteed positive identification which is what informs the calculated risk.
This way paparazzi can take pictures but it's hard to distinguish the shapes.
But now probably pretty much anyone in their bedroom could do it in a few hours. Literally next post after this one is for https://vgg-t.github.io/
The surveillance state is here
One of my favorites. Haven't found much to read about it, so don't know how effective it was, or why it's not used more.
All modern multi-terrain camouflage does incorporate some aspects of the Berlin pattern, particularly contrasting shadow.
* The NVA's commitment to wider WarPac strategy was questionable so the Brigade was intended to inflict both physical and philosophical damage upon them whilst fighting for their capital; once that objective was seized, it was hoped that the NVA would show little further interest in pushing westward. This was intended to reinforce the forecast reluctance of Czechoslovak and Polish forces and lead to the isolation of Soviet forces.
Afterwards I realized the weaknesses of such a scheme. Against an actual urban background it was quite effective in preventing perception of the oval shape of a satellite dish. Backlit by a bright sky, not so much. The oval shadow cast by the dish in sunlight was also quite easy to detect.