When you were a kid, did you ever wish you could turn invisible, if only for a day? Scientists are already working on making an invisible cloak, according to the BBC News, but maybe you won't have to wait for them to finish the technology and bring it to the market. All you really need is $150, the willingness to spend it on Microsoft's Kinect motion controller, and a little bit of coding.
Takayuki Fukatsu has developed a hack using OpenFrameworks, an open source C++ toolkit, that makes the user look as if they are invisible on Kinect's cameras. Since the Kinect can distinguish between a human and the background environment behind it, Fukatsu has managed to overlay said background on top of the image of the user. Thanks to Kinect's hardware, the superimposition can occur in real time. This seven minute video shows what he's managed to achieve (it gets good at minute 1:30):
The video reminds us of how a chameleon would use its camouflage abilities to hide from predators, or to be a predator itself. To see other examples of camouflage in nature, check out this article: Masters of Nature Camouflage: Unbelievable Animal Photography.