STRIDE Digital Camo Development

The research was published by Instrumentation & Electronics Technology Division (BTIE), Science & Technology, Research Institute for Defence (STRIDE), Ministry of Defence, Malaysia

While a number of camouflage patterns have been designed, none of them are suitable for the Malaysian coastal environment. Hence, this research objective is aimed at designing a camouflage pattern for Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) coastal patrol boats. Representative coastal environment training grounds in Lumut (Perak), Pulau Indah (Selangor) and Port Dickson (Negeri Sembilan) were selected. The captured images of the study areas were converted to digital and artistic patterns.

The patterns were then clustered to five index colours, with the colours redefined using the collected field colour measurements and inservice camouflage reference colours of infrared reflectance (IRR) paint. The selection of the regions of interest for the pattern templates were picked based on the variation of colour composition. After comparison of a few generated patterns based on colour composition, the most suitable camouflage pattern template was selected.

Interestingly the design match with the digital camo introduced during the last HUT ATM ke 80. The improvement of the woodland pattern to the recent trend of digital (pixelated) camouflage pattern is due to the dithering effect, which does not show solid lines between the colours. The digital pattern is able to degrade edges of shapes to disrupt the form of target objects, and would require more time for detection and recognition in specific environments. In addition, the determination of the pattern size to be created is also a vital criterion. 

This is due to the visual ability of human eyes significantly being subjected to the spatial resolution of the objects related to its distance. Therefore, the pattern designed usually includes micro- and macro-elements for its effectiveness in close and particular distances. For instance, small elements cannot be seen from a distance.

[via Stride]
credit photo -Iwan@Malaysianwings.net