Engineers have created a material that can read its environment and change colour to blend in.

The high-tech camouflage system could be used for anything from simple disappearing gimmicks to lifesaving devices.

The technology borrows from the design book of nature, inspired by the rapidly-changing skins of octopuses, squid and cuttlefish.

“Our device sees colour and matches it. It reads the environment using thermochromatic material,” says assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Houston, Cunjiang Yu.

The flexible skin of the device is made of ultra-thin layers, combining semiconductor actuators, switching components and light sensors with inorganic reflectors and organic colour-changing materials.

They are arranged in such a way to allow autonomous matching with background coloration.

The researchers say their device includes man-made version of the key elements in the skin of cephalopods.

The prototype developed by the researchers works in black and white, with shades of gray, but Yu said it could be designed to work in the full color spectrum. Similarly, he said while the prototype is less than one-inch square, it can be easily scaled up for manufacturing.

While there are clear applications in warfare and espionage, Yu says consumer applications such as toys and wearable electronics could form a valuable market too.

The technology will be described in an upcoming paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.