The concept and inspiration for camouflage are derived from animals and plants that use this technique to hide from their predators or prey and avoid detection by blending in with the environment. While animals and plants also have the capability to disguise themselves by changing their skin color or parts of their appearance, humans can leverage this technique by using camouflage patterns and colors in their clothing or equipment to blend in with their surroundings and go undetected.
Read this article to get a basic understanding of how camouflage works and whether it is effective in enabling adaptation to individuals’ cognitive mechanisms and visual perceptions.
Introduction of camouflage in warfare
The camouflage pattern first came to light during the First World War when the British army established a camouflage section in 1916. However, according to historians, the French had formed a camouflage section the year before. In fact, the word camouflage is also derived from a French verb that means to make up for the stage.
Since its introduction in the military, camouflage has been used to conceal personnel and equipment from the enemy and employ effective deception during combat or training. Initially, camouflage was used more commonly on guns and vehicles, and soon, its use extended to military gear, including clothing, helmets, and accessories like backpacks.
How does camouflage work?
The basis of camouflage is to hide oneself and their equipment from the enemy. The two basic elements that make up conventional camouflage are patterns and colors. The color of the camouflage apparel, accessories, and equipment depends on the environment where the warfare is taking place.
These colors are combined with different patterns to help hide the contours of the user’s body and enable them to blur within the surrounding terrains. These varying colors and patterns are vital as they help separate the person, i.e., they play mind tricks and help the wearer hide easily within plain sight. Let’s understand this concept in more detail.
Impact of colors on perception
Camouflage material is usually colored with dull shades to match the prevalent colors of the surrounding environment. For instance, the colors of choice in forest warfare are typically brown and green to mimic dirt and forest foliage. Similarly, military forces fighting in the desert use an array of tan hues, while for snowy climates, the choice of colors for camouflage is greys and whites. To complete the look and get overall concealment, troops may paint their faces with matching colors.
Camouflage fabric may feature a single color, but mostly it features a mix of colors in the form of various colored patches blended. The reason for making this kind of pattern is that it is visually disruptive. The winding lines of the stippled camouflage help in hiding the contours or outline of the wearer’s body. When someone looks at a piece of stippled camouflage in a similar environment, their brain connects the colored blotches with the shadows, leaves, the ground, and trees.
It is common human perception to categorize elements as separate objects. Hence, when you look at a specific scene, the brain accumulates a significant amount of information through the eyes along with the other senses. To make sense of the amassed information, the brain segregates into various components. Thus when the brain perceives green splotches connected to a vertical and long brown area, it identifies it as a tree, and if there are many individual trees in a certain area, the brain will perceive it as a forest.
Impact of Patterns on visual perception and Analysis
The camouflage patterns are one of the two elements that form the basis of the concept. Patterns may be intended for disruption or mimicry. While mimicry camouflage tries to trick the brain into believing that the subject is something that it is not, disruption camouflage tricks the brain into believing that the eyes do not see anything at all.
In any case, patterns are designed to impact the element of continuity when the brain is analyzing visual information. For instance, if a stack of ten blocks has all green blocks, the brain will perceive it as one unit. However, if the bottom five blocks are green in color, the brain will perceive them as two separate units. On the other hand, if the two colors are mixed randomly, you may be unable to segregate them into separate units as the colors will not be continuous.
Hence when a person wears a single color, they will most likely be recognized as they will stand out. On the other hand, if they wear a blend of colors, as we see in camouflage patterns, the brain will perceive them as part of the surroundings.
Hence different colors, when combined with an array of varying patterns, effectively hide the wearer’s body contours and help them blend in the surrounding environment. Besides humans, camouflage is also used to hide equipment from the enemy. This technique was first used in the First World War to hide equipment from enemy aircraft.
Camouflage for hunting
When it comes to camouflage clothing for hunting, disruptive patterns are the most suitable. Disruption refers to breaking up the outlines that are otherwise very well-defined in mimicry patterns. Disruption is effective in tricking animals’ eyes and rendering them incapable of recognizing the hunter as a single object. Varying size patterns on the camouflage patterns help create an illusion of depth, so the animal looks at one pattern as a small object and another pattern as another object located at a further distance.
Most of the camouflage clothing intended for hunting features mimicry patterns. However, animals like deer have a cloudier vision than humans. When a hunter wearing camouflage with a mimicry pattern approaches them, they may perceive it as a big blurry object with a well-defined outline. Hence while camouflage is very effective in hunting, the suitable choice is disruptive patterns.
Levitex offers a wide range of camouflage patterns, please check our camo images on our Pinterest page.
Final word
Since the olden times, camouflage has served to be a very important tool, particularly in warfare. In recent times, however, technological advancements like thermal sensing can help the enemy overcome concealment tactics employed via camouflage.
However, even now, camouflage is considered very effective as technology is not always able to detect things hidden by camouflage. It is a useful decoy tactic that helps conceal troops and equipment and delays recognition. Today, the use of camouflage has expanded beyond warfare, and it is the apparel of choice for hunting and is also popular for outdoor training and similar activities.