In 1996 Canada became the first country to adopt battledress with a camouflage pattern generated by a computer, also known as digital camouflage.

L-R: Simulated CADPAT (Canadian Disruptive Pattern) for temperate, arid and arctic regions.

It is not the pixellated appearance of the pattern from which digital camouflage gets its name. There are a number of pixellated patterns that are not digital camouflage (e.g. Soviet “Birch Leaf”), and a number of digital camouflage patterns that are not pixellated (e.g. Italian “Vegetato”).

Rather the term “digital camouflage” comes from the computer-aided process by which the pattern is developed, using computer models of how human vision works and applying complicated computer techniques such as fractal generation and recursive algorithms employing both macro- and micro-patterns. The hope is that this more scientific approach will result in camouflage patterns with lower detectability, and this seems borne out by the fact that most militaries are now adapting digital camouflage patterns.