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Watch this cuttlefish-inspired ‘skin’ morph into a 3-D shape

New silicone material could one day help camouflage robots

Australian cuttlefish (Sepia apama)

STEALTHY SKINS Human-made shape-shifting material could help robots disguise themselves much like how this giant Australian cuttlefish (Sepia apama) is mimicking its environment.

Roger Hanlon

By Maria Temming

- More than 2 years ago

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Now you see it, now you don’t.

Inspired by cephalopods like octopuses and cuttlefish, which change their skin textures for camouflage, researchers fabricated a stretchy material that inflates into various 3-D shapes and flattens back out.