{"id":237871,"date":"2026-05-28T03:46:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T08:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/optical-device-uses-humidity-to-unlock-hidden-information-and-offers-new-option-for-data-storage"},"modified":"2026-05-28T03:46:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T08:46:31","slug":"optical-device-uses-humidity-to-unlock-hidden-information-and-offers-new-option-for-data-storage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/optical-device-uses-humidity-to-unlock-hidden-information-and-offers-new-option-for-data-storage","title":{"rendered":"Optical device uses humidity to unlock hidden information and offers new option for data storage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lqMYFzQ8_6Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed an optical device that reveals hidden images and changes colors in response to different levels of humidity. The technology, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41377-026-02330-5\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Light: Science &amp; Applications<\/i>, could lead to the development of new anti-counterfeiting labels, secure data storage, interactive displays, and environmental sensors.<\/p>\n<p>The device works by displaying different images depending on moisture levels in the air. Under normal conditions or low humidity levels, one image (UC San Diego Triton logo) is visible. When humidity increases, a second image (UC San Diego library logo) emerges and conceals the first. This transition can be triggered even when a person breathes on the device. It happens in a fraction of a second and can be repeated many times.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can imagine using this as a built-in security feature with the environment acting like a key that unlocks different pieces of information,\u201d said study first author Asad Nauman, an electrical and computer engineering postdoctoral researcher at UC San Diego. \u201cOne example would be something like a credit card security tag, where you can blow on it and reveal a hidden code. Another application would be an environmental sensor that changes color as the humidity changes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed an optical device that reveals hidden images and changes colors in response to different levels of humidity. The technology, published in Light: Science &amp; Applications, could lead to the development of new anti-counterfeiting labels, secure data storage, interactive displays, and environmental sensors. The device works [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1523,38,1492],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computing","category-engineering","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}