Credit cards embedded chips, national mints printed watermarks, and high-profile locations installed retina scanners all for the same reason—to protect information. As attackers grow smarter, so must defense.<a href="https://engineering.cmu.edu/directory/bios/shen-sheng.html" target="_blank">Sheng Shen</a>, along with collaborators at Penn State University, have developed a pixel-by-pixel approach to visible camouflage with hopes of scaling it for enhanced infrared surveillance, optical security, and anti-forgery protections.“Our collaborators came to us with brochosomes—a ‘magic’ structure leafhoppers produce to create a cloak effect to hide from predators,” said Shen, a professor of <a href="https://www.meche.engineering.cmu.edu/index.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">mechanical engineeringOpens in new window</a>. “We wanted to understand brochosomes’ optical limitations to see what more we could do with them.”Brochosomes are 3D soccer ball-like objects with nanoscale cavities that internally absorb light rather than reflect it onto outside structures. In nature, biologists suspect that this allows leafhoppers to blend in with their background.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1710755534602-0301-em-mirco-mirage-3.png" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">To test functionality, the team simulated two different versions of the structure, one with cavities for light absorption and one without.“There is a fundamental law in physics that if a structure is a good absorber of energy, it can emit an equal amount of energy,” explained Zhuo Li, Ph.D. candidate at Carnegie Mellon. “We quickly realized that if we put both structures together, one would emit more energy than the other. That would make one appear brighter to an infrared camera than the other.”And so began the development of the world’s smallest QR code.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1710755551949-0301-em-micro-mirage-1.png" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Using an advanced 3D printing technique, developed by the Penn State collaborators, the team controlled whether each pixel was printed as a structure with or without holes, allowing them to fabricate a QR code readable by infrared camera alone.Sizing up at less than two percent of an inch, the code is only visible under a microscope but both teams plan to explore ways to scale it for commercial use too.<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x54k-rT5OAA?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true">&nbsp;&nbsp;</iframe>“With this technology we are ultimately distorting an objects’ thermal signature,” said Li. “We have the power to disguise how objects are displayed on an infrared camera. Hypothetically, if we laid the brochosome pixels accordingly, we could paint a patrol car to appear as a delivery van to infrared security.”The team’s unique combination of visible camouflage and infrared display creates new opportunities for data encryption and optical security.<blockquote>We’ve taken infrared light and turned it from an energy carrier to an information carrier.<cite>Shen Sheng, Professor, Mechanical Engineering</cite></blockquote>“This is just the start of a new research area my team can explore,” said Sheng. “We’ve taken infrared light and turned it from an energy carrier to an information carrier.”This research was done in collaboration with The Pennsylvania State University researchers Dr. Lin Wang and Professor Tak-Sing Wong. It was first published in <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adl4027" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Science AdvancesOpens in new window</a>. Zhuo Li and Lin Wang contributed equally to this work. The authors acknowledge support from the Department of Defense Office of Naval Research.

Researchers fabricate the world’s smallest QR code that, invisible to the naked eye, encrypts information to only be visible by an infrared camera lens.

Micro mirage: the infrared information carrier

At Caracol, we constantly work to improve and perfect our technology&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/quality/" id="isPasted" tabindex="0" target="_blank">#quality</a> and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/accuracy/" tabindex="0" target="_blank">#accuracy</a> throughout the production process. Thanks to the continuous improvement work conducted by our R&amp;D engineers, we&rsquo;ve recently integrated thermal monitoring systems and Infrared (IR) cameras on our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/lfam/" tabindex="0" target="_blank">#LFAM</a> process. The top layer IR video lets us analyze thermal evolution in time and space and identify hot and cold areas. This allows us to guarantee optimal surface adhesion between printed layers, monitor the progress and precision throughout the job, and automatically detect defects to ultimately deliver zero-defect production and the best properties on our final printed parts.

Caracol has introduced thermal monitoring and Infrared (IR) cameras on our #LFAM technology, to deliver zero-defect production and the best properties on final printed parts.

thermal scanner