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These things have applications for stealth aircraft as they often absorb radar as well as visible light. But even for visible light, if you're looking at someth

These things have applications for stealth aircraft as they often absorb radar as well as visible light. But even for visible light, if you're looking at something painted vantablack in broad daylight, you only see a silhouette--much like WWI "Dazzle" camouflage, it's very difficult for the brain to process what you're looking at.

axaxs 7y ago
That's very interesting, I was thinking about stealth bombers. Do you think it would have applications in say, military uniforms? I wonder how it compares to digital camo, mirror based camo, etc in regards to detection.
- Scaevolus 7y ago
  Carbon nanotubes are similar to asbestos fibers, so it's not something that you'd want to put in a garment.
  - fuzz4lyfe 7y ago
    Rapidly moving lead will kill you faster than asbestos, there might be a few tactical uses for such a garment.
    - yellowapple 7y ago
      > Rapidly moving lead will kill you faster than asbestos As will rapidly moving copper, or rapidly moving depleted uranium, or even a rapidly moving wooden stick with a stone point on it. :)
    - samstave 7y ago
      Likely better to put on txtical equipment, such as guns and boots?
  - groby_b 7y ago
    That's assuming the military cares about the long term effects.
- UncleEntity 7y ago
  > Do you think it would have applications in say, military uniforms? During the first gulf war they gave us some jackets that absorbed the wavelengths the night-vision goggles could see so you'd just see a human shaped void which kind of stands out a lot more than a regular person -- not the best of plans.
samstave 7y ago
I asked this exact question last time we were talking about vanta - and several people more knowledgable on stealth than me, said that they would not...
perl4ever 7y ago
"if you're looking at something painted vantablack in broad daylight, you only see a silhouette" If you scroll down the linked page, there is a photo of a vantablack BMW taken with a flashlight and a cell phone, and it simply looks like a dull gray when some light is pointed at it: https://jalopnik.com/bmw-flexed-on-us-with-its-amazing-paint-at-the-frankfur-1838116320 https://jalopnik.com/bmw-flexed-on-us-with-its-amazing-paint... It seems like common sense to me that if you're looking at a picture on the internet that is staged just so, it is trivial to get all the "black" pixels to be exactly zero, but that doesn't tell you much about the quality of the material or how it would look to a person.

axaxs 7y ago

That's very interesting, I was thinking about stealth bombers. Do you think it would have applications in say, military uniforms? I wonder how it compares to digital camo, mirror based camo, etc in regards to detection.

Scaevolus 7y ago
Carbon nanotubes are similar to asbestos fibers, so it's not something that you'd want to put in a garment.
- fuzz4lyfe 7y ago
  Rapidly moving lead will kill you faster than asbestos, there might be a few tactical uses for such a garment.
  - yellowapple 7y ago
    > Rapidly moving lead will kill you faster than asbestos As will rapidly moving copper, or rapidly moving depleted uranium, or even a rapidly moving wooden stick with a stone point on it. :)
  - samstave 7y ago
    Likely better to put on txtical equipment, such as guns and boots?
- groby_b 7y ago
  That's assuming the military cares about the long term effects.
UncleEntity 7y ago
> Do you think it would have applications in say, military uniforms? During the first gulf war they gave us some jackets that absorbed the wavelengths the night-vision goggles could see so you'd just see a human shaped void which kind of stands out a lot more than a regular person -- not the best of plans.

samstave 7y ago

I asked this exact question last time we were talking about vanta - and several people more knowledgable on stealth than me, said that they would not...

perl4ever 7y ago

"if you're looking at something painted vantablack in broad daylight, you only see a silhouette" If you scroll down the linked page, there is a photo of a vantablack BMW taken with a flashlight and a cell phone, and it simply looks like a dull gray when some light is pointed at it: https://jalopnik.com/bmw-flexed-on-us-with-its-amazing-paint-at-the-frankfur-1838116320 https://jalopnik.com/bmw-flexed-on-us-with-its-amazing-paint... It seems like common sense to me that if you're looking at a picture on the internet that is staged just so, it is trivial to get all the "black" pixels to be exactly zero, but that doesn't tell you much about the quality of the material or how it would look to a person.