Chromatophores In Buildings

As many of you already may realize the North American common squid (Loligo pealei), has chromatophores that enable it to change colour to match its surroundings. Their pale bodies can become almost transparent if necessary or take on the coloring of nearby rocks or seaweeds. Its a predator deterrant adaptation that relies on the animals nervous system with its inherent electrical stimuli.

Heres the concept. Take the chromatophores, clone them and paste them between two tightly spaced glass panels. Using a slight electrical stimuli should stimulate them to change colour. By determing exact charges and currents, the colour could be varied.

Glass windows could change from clear to opaque to green to brown to an abstract painting based on the charge applied. Glass buildings could blend into the scenery. You could develop a computer program that would be able to morph the pattern into various shapes. Imagine green skyscrapers for St. Patricks Day & Christmas! With the computer you could train the chromatophores to produce rudimentary shapes like boxes, pyramids and even symbols. Your business logo could be as large as the building.

The sky is quite literally the limit with this one.

Terry Megeney

 

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that's a pretty amazing concept. But all it really is, is some colored windows. For what purpose exactly? To camouflage a building? To make a house celebratory colors? All for what, a million dollars a window? Money could be spent on other things, you know.

 

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This reminds me of other things not so elabolate. The ford paint job. That changes dolors as it goes by. Kind of a rainbow sheen, also it changes by uv. If you're hand is over the paint in teh sunlight then when you remove your hand the apint is a different color for a short period of time. Also when it becomes night it changes.

Some of the newer cars have a film in the galss layers that is hit with a change of electricity to alter its clarity becoming more tinted indirect sunlight.

It would seem that if your used the biological cells to make this alteration then they would have to be fed something to keep them alive. That also means that there is waste to dispose of. But definatly a new concept.

 

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Windows?

Okay, windows are a concept, but imagine the whole building coated in the stuff. The building would become one grid that would react in different ways based on what the programming tells it to do. The other good thing about the living cells is that they could heal. As for feeding them, well chromatophores are living cells, but not complete, so the suspension solution would sustain them with zero waste.

Now, heres the twist. What if we were able to do the same thing between two thin layers of clear flexible plastic. You would have a raincoat that would give you perfect camoflauge. I know thats kind of a military thing, but other uses present themselves as well.

Think of this as not as a basic color change, but the ability to mask the application so that it appears to be not there.
T,