--- title: Octopus Skin Inspires New Camouflage Sheet description: Scientists have developed a color-changing sheet inspired by octopuses and their camouflaging techniques. canonical: https://time.com/3141614/octopus-skin-camouflage-device-university-of-houston-university-of-illinois/ author: Stephanie Burnett article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-19T09:18:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:02:59.267Z article:section: Science og:title: Octopus Skin Inspires Cool New Camouflage Sheet og:description: Like an octopus, it changes its color in a second og:url: https://time.com/3141614/octopus-skin-camouflage-device-university-of-houston-university-of-illinois/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Octopus Skin Inspires Cool New Camouflage Sheet twitter:description: Like an octopus, it changes its color in a second twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Octopus Skin Has Inspired a New Type of Camouflage Sheet by [Stephanie Burnett](https://time.com/author/stephanie-burnett/) ## Stephanie Burnett Aug 19, 2014 9:18 AM UTC by [Stephanie Burnett](https://time.com/author/stephanie-burnett/) ## Stephanie Burnett Aug 19, 2014 9:18 AM UTC Scientists have developed a color-changing device inspired by octopuses and their natural camouflaging techniques. The research, carried out at the University of Houston and University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, looked at how the skins of octopuses, squid and cuttlefish can change color so rapidly. From there, researchers were able to design a heat-sensitive sheet that quickly changes color when detecting light. At room temperature the flexible sheet is black. Once the device’s top layer, which contains a heat-sensitive dye, detects light it becomes transparent. True, this is hardly a rainbow of hues, but scientists believe it is the first step to developing a camouflage material for human use. “\[The device\] is by no means a deployable camouflage system but it’s a pretty good starting point,” [said](http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/08/18/adaptive-colour-changing-sheet-inspired-by-octopus-skin/) a lead researcher, John Rogers of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, to _National Geographic_. [_Popular Mechanics_](http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/water/behold-the-octopus-inspired-adaptive-camouflage-17108661?click=pm%5Flatest) broke down the layers of the new device as follows: --- > “” --- \[[_National Geographic_](http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/08/18/adaptive-colour-changing-sheet-inspired-by-octopus-skin/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3141614/octopus-skin-camouflage-device-university-of-houston-university-of-illinois/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3141614/octopus-skin-camouflage-device-university-of-houston-university-of-illinois/"},"headline":"Octopus Skin Has Inspired a New Type of Camouflage Sheet","datePublished":"2014-08-19T09:18:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:59.267Z","description":"It can only switch from black to transparent and back again, but that's a start","url":"https://time.com/3141614/octopus-skin-camouflage-device-university-of-houston-university-of-illinois/","keywords":["Chemistry","Tech"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Stephanie Burnett","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/stephanie-burnett/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/chemistry/","name":"Chemistry"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3141614/octopus-skin-camouflage-device-university-of-houston-university-of-illinois/","name":"Octopus Skin Has Inspired a New Type of Camouflage Sheet"}}]}] ```