Data from: Cultural evolution of military camouflage

While one has evolved and the other been consciously created, animal and
military camouflage are expected to show many similar design principles.
Using a unique database of calibrated photographs of camouflage uniform
patterns, processed using texture and colour analysis methods from
computer vision, we show that the parallels with biology are deeper than
design for effective concealment. Using two case studies we show that,
like many animal colour patterns, military camouflage can serve multiple
functions. Following the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, countries that
became more Western-facing in political terms converged on NATO patterns
in camouflage texture and colour. Following the break-up of the former
Yugoslavia, the resulting states diverged in design, becoming more similar
to neighbouring countries than the ancestral design. None of these
insights would have been obtained using extant military approaches to
camouflage design, which focus solely on concealment. Moreover, our
computational techniques for quantifying pattern offer new tools for
comparative biologists studying animal coloration.