Prediction: 2012 is the Year of Camo

WILMINGTON, N.C., Jan. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
• U.S. Patent Office grants new Stealth Camo patent to MW R&D

• Popular Science cover story proclaims "Camo Gets a Makeover" from Special Operations Apps

• Camouflage creator sees big year for billion-dollar market as a result of new Camo Tech

The companies responsible for two new camo technologies — revealed in Popular Science magazine's first cover of 2012 "The New Science of Stealth" — today announced that The U.S. Patent Office has now formally granted a patent for the new camo stealth tech, Modern Warfare Camo™.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120104/CL29581-a)

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120104/CL29581-b)

K. Dominic Cincotti — founder of technology companies Special Operations Apps (SOA) and MW Research and Development, Inc., and widely credited as the creator of camera-derived digital camouflage — predicts that creation of Modern Warfare Camo™ and dramatic changes throughout the military and commercial markets will make "2012 The Year of Camo."

The New Science of Stealth Camo

January 2012's Popular Science cover story, Invisible Warriors and the New Science of Stealth, reports the two biggest new tech advances in modern camouflage, as  "Camo Gets A Makeover."

Popular Science (The Future Now) reported SOA's development of site-specific camouflage using an app and a mobile smart device that combines photographs of a given location into customized, terrain-specific patterns that can be digitally printed directly onto a garment or fabric.

One new camo technology in the Popular Science article is simultaneous camo stealth, in which multispectral countermeasures are simultaneously deployed for manned and unmanned vehicles, equipment, hardware, and weapons, for maximum tactical advantage.

"Camo, a multibillion-dollar business, will make huge gains in 2012," Cincotti said, "because it will mark a turning point in how camo is designed and made.

"Camouflage design has changed very little for centuries — until now," he said. "But new technologies, focused on how we design and manufacture camo, will produce a new shift in this market estimated to be in the billions."

Camo — Digitally Designed For You — and By You

"In 2012 camouflage will be amazingly precise because we can now use digital cameras or mobile smart devices like iPhones in the design process," Cincotti said. "Other camo designs will take the form of highly detailed, intricate, artistic expressions. Both these new camouflage types will be printed using digital means directly onto fabric — just like we would print a digital picture.

"The biggest change is, in 2012, camo can be digitally designed for you — and by you," Cincotti said.

"Take into account the Pentagon's decision to undertake the Camouflage Improvement Effort — budgeting millions to rethink camo — which will produce new multiple camo designs for all uniforms in the US Army, and add to that the popular culture explosion of camo we're seeing right now," Cincotti said.

Camo is featured in the major motion picture "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" — even Sherlock Holmes declares he has been "inventing Urban Camouflage!" Brad Paisley is topping country music charts right now with a song actually titled, "Camouflage." In it, he sings, "you can blend in in the country or stand out in Fashion World."

"Camo has crossed over," Cincotti said, "to prom dresses, wedding dresses, and even baby diapers. We'll see it in major fashion brands for 2012, on NBA teams, on city streets and country roads, in hunting and outdoor recreation. It's on your new iPhone 4 case, on your new gaming system, and in all of the best selling video games.

"Technology and camo design converge at the two biggest trade shows in January, within days of each other, in Las Vegas," Cincotti said. "At CES 2012, razor-thin OLED TVs and thin, flexible displays will be unveiled, as will more powerful mobile smart devices and apps. And the next week is the SHOT Show, where everyone's favorite color is camouflage.

"Camo, as a market, is doing everything but hiding," Cincotti said.

Modern Warfare Camo™ featured in Popular Science

Modern Warfare Camo™ is both active and adaptive simultaneous multispectral camouflage. "This is a truly significant patent that has been issued to MW R&D because it is a future-proofed solution we have now," said David Mullins, SOA's team leader of subject matter experts and a former Special Forces operator on four continents.

Different sensors on the modern battlescape "see" and detect objects and soldiers in different ways. The creation of multispectral simultaneous adaptive camouflage takes this into account. Modern Warfare Camo™ is a stealth camo technology that combines high-definition video imagery, a flexible thin-film display, multiple layers of sensor-blocking nanomaterials, and miniaturized thermoelectric array devices. Together, these countermeasures mimic the location and environment, producing mutispectral simultaneous adaptive concealment.

Popular Science's article examines technologies in the works from Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Ceno Technologies, the Office of Naval Research, Duke University, the University of Illinois, and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, as well as SOA. "We're in great company and clearly have found our own niche," Cincotti said.

"Unlike many of the projected advances highlighted in Popular Science," Cincotti said, "these SOA technologies are not predictions. They are now facts."

Popular Science, founded in 1872, has a venerable, award-winning history and has covered every major advance in the last 140 years — including the work of many science greats, among them Marie Curie, Darwin, Pasteur, Edison, Tesla, Einstein, Oppenheimer, Watson and Crick.

SOA and MW R&D: Camo Creation

From the Barrons website

From the Wall Street Journal website

Another SOA development, the CamoScience™ app, was featured in CNN and NBC TV news programs last year, in stories that focused on next-gen camo capabilities it gives to military, outdoor, and apparel markets — demonstrating the power of these iPhone-like smart devices with feature-rich app attributes, including geo-positioning, augmented reality overlays, and Area of Operation HD in-camera imagery.

The CamoScience™ effort was led by Cathlena Spencer, SOA chief technology officer, teaming with Apple iTunes Award-Winning developers of the Theodolite App for the iPhone 4, the best-selling navigation app.

"We simply want the soldier to have the best camo that they and our government could get," Spencer said. "Don't we owe them that? Especially if these new processes and methods are better, faster, and competitively priced versus the legacy tech of World War II printing capabilities. As a country, we would never give the American soldier a World War II rifle. Why would we make the soldier wear camo using World War II printing techniques?"

Who Gets It

"Major companies and their shareholders risk millions on research and development, never knowing if their time and money is completely wasted," Cincotti said. "Market positions have been jeopardized and big companies have become small companies because of delays, setbacks, and pitfalls that don't produce winning new tech."

"The easiest way to manage this risk? Buy proven innovation — or license it. Feel free to contact MW R&D or SOA, and we can help your company avoid this risk." Cincotti said. "We're always eager to work with the leaders and potential market leaders who 'get' it."

"Whether you're a billion-dollar defense company that needs the next 20-year market in the science of stealth for manned and unmanned vehicles or a large commercial business in hunting, outdoor tactical equipment, sports, or apparel who wants to lead the new Custom Camo market — MW R&D and Special Operations Apps are singularly positioned to make that happen."

SOA and MW R&D have been in discussions with potential partners and expect to begin announcing strategic partnerships, licensing arrangements, teaming agreements, contract awards, subcontractor designations, and co-ventures in the first and second quarter of 2012. In 2009, intellectual property created by MW R&D garnered a $43 million contract award. SOA and MW R&D have attracted interest from venture capital firms and major defense companies.

Special Operations Apps is a privately held company based in Wilmington, NC, strategically situated between Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune and convenient to Virginia Beach, VA.

For further information: Cathlena Spencer, Chief Technology Officer, 650-209-0762 (Zero-SOA)

Website: www.SpecialOperationsApps.com

Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

SOURCE Special Operations Apps; MW Research and Development, Inc.