THAYER COUNTER-SHADING APPLIED FORCAMOUFLAGING OBJECTS IN IMAGES USING IN- PAINTING

Abstract

Camouflaging i s the art of hiding objects in plain sight using colors/ patterns that blend with the background to cover the objects in question. It i s a wid ely used technique in the armed forces of almost all the nations since the advent of modern warfare. Given the context, there are many types of camouflage clothing as military uniforms suiting the terrain/ vegetation where the military units are deployed. The widespread use of such clothing has given rise to the noun “ camouflage” to mean such clothing. However camouflaging the objects may n ot be the final solution for the problem of secrecy as modern techniques l ike computer vision and object identification using pattern recognition and feature isolation still pose a threat to camouflaging. In this paper we discuss an adaptation of a technique developed by Abb ott Thayer in the beginning of the 20 th century in his paintings to hide objects using a combination of l ight and resulting shadows to effectively hide objects inside an image. The idea i s suited for transmission of images in any networ k that i s exposed to external threats. The images would have a set of objects that are already camouflaged. Our techniqu e is to modify the image using Thayer counter - shading for image in - painting to blend the objects of interest completely with the background so that without the aid of the inverse function the objects are rendered practically invisible.