Invention has long played a crucial role in hunting. Designing and streamlining weaponry for greater accuracy and efficiency continually provides hunters with a means of getting an edge over their prey. And, as most deer hunters will attest, there’s no better weapon than the element of surprise. With that principal in mind, a new type of hunting gear is taking camouflage into the digital age.
Optifade™ is the first camouflage scientifically designed to make hunters invisible to deer. Produced by W.L. Gore (the makers of Gore-Tex® products), the new “digital camouflage” is the result of scientific research and military technology. Traditionally, camouflage has been designed from the perspective of the human eye, but Gore Optifade Concealment Products were designed based on how deer see things. Research revealed that deer vision is a little blurrier than human vision (around 20/40), with red-green colorblindness. Deer eyes also have only two color receptors (unlike the three in the human eye), and they’re more sensitive to light at the blue end of the spectrum. Thanks to the eyes on either side of the head, they can see a field of vision covering 270 degrees. Once deer’s visual strengths and weaknesses were assessed, scientists and military experts went to work using computer algorithms to create patterns to trick deer’s eyes. The result is overalls, jackets and other accessories covered with small pixilated squares.
In contrast to mimicry camouflage, which attempts to make the hunter closely resemble his environment, Gore’s technology aims to prevent the animal from recognizing a hunter as a predator, even if the hunter is detected. To do this, Optifade incorporates both micro and macro patterns. The micro-pattern considers the way a deer or other hoofed animal perceives color, the ratio of positive to negative space and other visual elements to create an effect that allows the hunter to blend in with the animal’s perception of the environment. The macro-pattern breaks up the symmetry of the human body so that if a hunter is detected, the animal will not be able to identify the hunter as a predator. Experts point out that predators in the animal kingdom operate on the same macro and micro pattern principles. “Stalking predators, like tigers, have a macro-pattern of stripes that break up their body symmetry as they move through their environment. Ambush predators, like spotted leopards, utilize micro patterns that enable them to blend with their environment while poised to attack,” says Colonel Tim O’Neill, Ph.D, one of W. L. Gore’s advisors on the project. “Human hunters both stalk and ambush, so we’ve used scientific research and technology to combine the best practices of the animal kingdom.”
While hunters across the nation are beginning to gear up for deer season (archery in many states started this past weekend), unfortunately, they won’t be able to test out Optifade just yet. Gore’s market partner, Sitka Gear, isn’t introducing the concealment product technology until fall of 2009. But Sitka’s entire system of high-performance clothing for the 2009 big-game hunting season will feature Gore Optifade (as well as Gore’s other typical product attributes – waterproof, windproof, and breathable Gore-Tex and windproof, breathable Windstopper® fabrics). Jason Hairston, one of the founders of Sitka Gear, is already calling the new line nothing short of revolutionary. “We’re confident that Gore Optifade Concealment Products will revolutionize the sport of hunting and are proud to be the first company to provide this advantage to those who like to ‘hunt hard’,” he said. If Optifade performs half as well as Gore and Sitka seem to believe it will, deer may not stand a chance.
