I recently came across an article about the Dazzle Ships of 100 years ago. During World War I, German U-Boats were trying to sink any merchant ships bringing food and supplies to England (they sank over 900 ships in ten months). To camouflage the ships, artist Norman Wilkinson came up with the idea of dazzle or baffle painting to fool the perception of the ships by painting in geometric slanting designs which was thought to confuse the estimation of torpedo firing when the ship was viewed through a periscope. 
