Volume 384, Number 8546 (newstand edition for the week 15th - 21st of September) of The Economist has a cover photo portraying three US soldiers in, presumably, Iraq. They stand two outside, and one inside, of what looks like a severely damaged house. The thing that stands out is the three GIs barely stand out.

The following is a photo of the cover my own copy of the above mentioned issue of The Economist (I'm using this silly way to display the picture so I won't copy the image, and all the copyright thing). You can see the original image on The Economist web site: Why they should stay.

Pixel Camouflage Patterns

The soldiers in the picture are wearing what looks like a uniform using a Pixel Camouflage Pattern, possibly this Army Combat Uniform (ACU). The camouflage pattern uses a pixelated design known as Marine Pattern Camouflage (MARPAT).

Camouflage history is a quite interesting one, and not related to military life as all the camouflage street wear may easily prove. If you want to know more about camouflage patterns for uniform, Camouflage uniforms of the world by Henrik Clausen is a very good starting point. There's also the quite naïve querelle on who was the first between the USA and the Canadian Army to introduce the digital pixel technique (CADPAT in the Canadian spelling of the pattern, standing for Canadian Disruptive Pattern).

Cover the flesh

The following image highlights the only standing out parts of the soldiers figures, the naked skin. The soldiers faces, and the un-gloved hands do really stand out; have a look at the soldier on the right, even if his gloves are not matching the uniform pattern, and looks more a sand color than an urban outfit accessory, the hands go unnoticed.

In the following image I covered the above naked parts with a, purposely, gross elaboration imposing the same pattern used for their uniform (think of a balaclava or a scarf). The effect is quite impressive. Now that the skin has been covered the most evident part of the soldiers are the sand colored of the soldier on the right. A silly, but inexpensive, method of studying issues in real life scenarios.

Real life scenarios camouflage issues

The following image has the soldier's gloves covered with the same method applied for the exposed skin above. Now we have our attention shifted again, now the standing out points are of two type, one is probably a personal choice of one of the soldiers, the others are part of the uniform and arms. The soldier on the right wears a wrist watch that really has to much white in it, he also chose to tape the cartridge packs together with a light color tape that really doesn't fit. The other parts standing out are shiny metal part of the equipment (a carabiner or the like is clearly visible). The second image highlights these points

Everything covered, as in the following image, and the three guys are now quite invisible (remember this is only a photo of a photo and that real life experience of the word invisible, for camouflage topics, differs a bit).