Wow, does this mean Juggalos have been foiling surveillance this entire time?
Interesting, I felt sure that the little cheekbone paint wouldn’t be enough, but sure enough when I loaded
into iPhoto, the app claimed it couldn’t find any faces, even the one on the far right.
Of course, that’s just iPhoto, not l33t-NSA-tek, but it’s interesting how well it was fooled by what appear to be a fairly straight-forward face.
That said, it can’t last. If we can tell those things are faces, eventually the computers will be able to tell as well. People are always amazed by what happens as processing power keeps doubling. Ten years ago facial-recognition wasn’t anywhere close to what it is now.
And yet, all of his “out in public” photos are of him with a beard and the dazzle. I know it was meant to be an experiment in how humans would react to him, but it seems particularly odd that he did it in a way that he knew wouldn’t foil any facial recognition anyway.
As for the actual camouflage itself - pity that it seems to require bangs hanging over your face… Those of us who are more… follicularly challenged up top would have to buy wigs. 
I just wear thick rimmed glasses and have a beard. Never been able to be picked up by those face finding cameras
Perhaps just make a fashionable headband out of this stuff:
I would be really interested in more technical detail on how and whether dazzle works, though this might be the wrong site for that.
But that people’s reactions are also interesting. As a white, traditionally dressed dude I’m given respectul privacy but I’m neither stared at nor ignored. But I’ve found (anecdotally) even very minor social deviations (e.g., riding a unicycle while wearing business casual) can make one totally invisible / disconnected and that does feel unnerving. I do think this is strongly culturally dependent. Again, using the unicycle example (since I’m not about to paint my face) how people respond to unusual people is one of the big differences between small towns, big cities, and different ethnic enclaves.
I recall an old-time-radio sci-fi story where the characters would put on their “public face” before leaving home – pretty prescient for old schlock…
Heck, there’s no shortage of 80s cyberpunk gangs that wore facepaint like that (usually with neon mohawks). Who thought that part would be so prescient.
While this may confuse the machines I’m pretty sure it will make you much more identifiable via conventional means of surveillance. “Oh, you’re looking for that paranoid weirdo who always wears face paint? Yeah, he was just here.”
He even lays out the central problem himself:
The first thing to know about wearing the dazzle is that everyone looks at you.
I can see this catching on. It requires no more work than goth, and a lot less than drag. Makeup companies could actually encourage the trend, opening an entire market up to men. Sports fans could use their team’s colors.
It’s more than a quick double-take or turn of the head: Their eyes lock, and they stare.
so it screws up humans facial recognition software also.
I want to live in a future where Darth Vader’s torso computer is considered fashionable.
We can make that future, you and I, together!
But, ah, you first.
So the obvious question†is, “why not wear a mask or balaclava?”
†…with the obvious answers like social norms, comfort, and making it illegal to wear masks in public notwithstanding.
Except that, as he mentioned, it seemed to work less reliably when he used blue/white vs black/white.
Seems to me the people who outlaw wearing masks in public (I get reminded of this stupid law every Halloween) would simply outlaw facepaint in public too. I guess with facepaint they would at least have to draw a line somewhere between makeup (including Dolly Parton levels) and facepainting. They would probably leave it vague so cops could harass anybody they wanted for virtually any level of face covering though.
When I see these sorts of things, all I can think is, “Boy, this is so New Wave/Glam.” Adam Ant and David Bowie were anti-surveillance trend-setters far ahead of their time.
We just need a New Wave resurgence, and it won’t be out of place at all.
What about countersurveillance tattoos? Can they ban these too? How they can enforce that, remove the violator’s face?
