ChromoUpdate: a chameleon paint that works thanks to UV rays

Today's innovation could make it easier to choose in stores.

Rather than presenting a product in all its variations of colors or patterns, we will soon have objects whose decoration can change on demand.

Take the example of a plate.

You arrive on the shelf, an all-white model is presented.

But with the push of a button, the plate turns blue, yellow, with flowers or small weights.

We can touch it, manipulate it.

You can really see what it looks like in each of the colors or patterns in the range.

Until now, we only had photos in a catalog or on a screen.

From now on, we know how to change the decoration directly on the real object.

How it works ?

Do we put a screen on him?

No, we use a kind of chameleon paint instead.

It is made up of transparent pigments, which can be activated on demand, by bombarding them with ultraviolet rays.

It works like a printer.

Except that we send jets of light with a projector, to redraw the pattern or change the colors.

And since the pigments only activate with specific ultraviolet rays, everything remains perfectly stable even in direct sunlight.

And how long does it take to redraw a new pattern?

It's pretty fast: around a minute.

This is why Ford (the automaker) decided to finance this technology.

You remember the famous Ford T. The one you could have "in any color, as long as it was black".

Now they dream of cars with this chameleon paint.

As a result, we can choose its color at the last moment, when we collect our car, rather than waiting for months for it to be manufactured.

We could even come back, change the color again or add flames to its hood.

The paint is called ChromoUpdate.

An invention of the engineers at MIT.