Study of Graphic Camouflage Patterns of Battle Uniform and improving the pattern used by Indian Army (Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of)
Master of Design (Synopsis)
By
Rohit Singh (Roll No. 1210410)
Supervisor
Mr K. K. Balakrishnan
DESIGN DISCIPLINE PDPM INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING JABALPUR 2014
Synopsis
The aim of this master thesis project is to study the importance of coloured pattern that are printed over the uniforms of the soldiers of defence forces in the world. These patterns serves the purpose of concealing the soldier from the eyes of the enemy. Camouflage is the term that is used for these patterns. This thesis comprises the various methods of cloth camouflage and more particularly its use on the battle dress of the soldiers.
War and battle have a long history of existence. Human race has innumerable times indulged in violent and aggressive conflicts to prove supremacy over each other or for the sake of self-defence. Apart from weapons and artillery of the army, war also involves strategies and planning. Harming enemy at maximum and survive in the end, is the motive for any commander and his troops. War also involves the collection of prior information about the enemy movement or spying their plans and formulas. For this requires intelligence and surveillance. Watching the enemy in such a way that they do not detect or recognise yourself, is the key strategy for any troops. And to render undetected in the surrounding before the eyes of the enemies, the attire of the soldier should match with the surrounding. This is called camouflage. The basic reason of the existence of camouflage lies in the psychophysical aspect of human brain. It can also be understood by the visual presumptions of the human mind. Research shows that the human eyes identify an object in the space by its boundaries and outlines. That means a person can see object easily unless and until he/she is seeing its outline easily. The moment these boundaries are blended with the background of the object, it ceases to be identified. Camouflage pattern works on this concept. This thesis has compiled various parameters and factors of camouflage design such as detection, decoy, discipline etc.
In the next part of the thesis, the contextual study of camouflage usage in Indian Army is done to explore the prospects of improvement in the current camouflage pattern design of Indian Army. This is done through study of previous work, research done in this field. Few case studies have also been read. Then, the new pattern is designed. In the end, to validate the result, experiment was done to check whether the eyes can detect the pattern in its
corresponding surrounding or not with reference to the current design of camouflage pattern of Indian Army. It is found that Indian Army has so far never developed their own pattern, rather adopted the pattern from other nations prior their permission. The battle dresses of the soldiers hold a national identity in itself. Since a long time, uniforms of soldiers are a way to identify them. With the advent of technology, these uniforms has a value addition. Gone are the days when these dresses meant to be seen and identify easily. War turned into a game of hide and seek. Guerrilla warfare and strategies became more prominent. Hide and attack became new way of fighting. In such situation, dresses need to conceal soldier. And thus camouflage pattern started evolving.
This project worked to improvise the pattern used by Indian Army. Indian army has a history of adopting the pattern design with little change from developed countries like USA and UK. Presently, Indian Army is using M-81 Woodland Pattern for forest area. This study finds the answer whether the pattern actually depends upon the surroundings where troops are standing under the same category of natural vegetation. Here, the pattern made for forest or green patch area by US Army is applied for the same climatic condition of India. This task is done by making a new pattern based on the specimen location selected. The location selected is the forest cover of Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh, India). Then, comparative test is done between the present pattern and the new one. It is done with the help of Eye-Tracking Machine to observe at maximum distance, pattern was identifiable. It is done by placing a piece of both printed pattern in the surrounding and taking pictures with high resolution camera at various distances having the difference of 3m from each other. Thereafter, these are tested on the set of observer with the machine mentioned above. The result came, proves that the new pattern worked more effectively for the given environment and it is also proved that the pattern depends upon the surroundings directly and adopting other pattern will not serve the purpose fully. Also, the project is more to propose a method or way to make accurate camouflage pattern, less the nature of final outcome. The thesis also paves a way for future research to make the pattern better by spending more time and selecting the location more similar to the real one of the Indian Army.
References
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