Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/09/25/scott-urban.html
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Yes, totally inconspicuous.
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I think they should consider making automotive license plate frames out of this material. It would make for a great protest against red light and speed cameras.
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but which can increase your facial privacy in public spaces.
My face has that ability built in from the factory.
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For these to be most effective, they need to be as inexpensive as possible and mailed to everyone like a Guy Fawkes mask in V for Vendetta.
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I can see London having a major issue with those specs.
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I want a viewer/glasses with a an IR camera so I can see the areas illuminated by IR lights.
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Came to say exactly this.
Is it too late for us to start a company? …
They should combine these with the ones that let you see the aliens.
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There are many similar products on the market that claim to do just that. But they’d only work at night, I suspect, and even then many traffic cameras use conventional strobes rather than IR illuminators, so who knows if it would work in the right wavelength. Also, the whole retro-reflective-blind-the-camera trick works best if the light source is very close to the camera. (Much like how red-eye never happens in a photo if the strobe isn’t attached to the camera itself) I’ve noticed that many red light cameras have strobes that are a good couple of feet away from the camera.
Good luck though! (By which I mean I hope you don’t get in an accident if you’re in the habit of running red lights on a regular basis)
For speed traps, there are other options to consider:
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Someone asked about Reflectacles recently over at r/LegalAdviceUK!
“England and Wales, is it illegal to wear glasses that emit infrared light during a protest?”
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Surely, with the black IR reflective coating, we can imagine something more fashionable than some ugly glasses?
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Ill never visit London again unless I have these. Im sick of being spied on everywhere.
Someone start an entire line of clothing like this. Please. I want a way to fight back against this veuyeristic society
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Remind me again how it is to 3D print Spitting Image sorts of stylish tops and wear them about in the Essex? Good for runners, bad for pop-up suppers, or the other way?
I am also a fan of Adam Harvey’s work:
“CV Dazzle” designs for makeup and hair that look like “not a face” to facial recognition tech
“Hyperface” textile designs that bamboozle facial recognition into seeing too many faces
The CV dazzle site lists a few basic principles for making your face look less like a face:
- Makeup: Avoid enhancers: They amplify key facial features. This makes your face easier to detect. Instead apply makeup that contrasts with your skin tone in unusual tones and directions: light colors on dark skin, dark colors on light skin.
- Nose Bridge: Partially obscure the nose-bridge area: The region where the nose, eyes, and forehead intersect is a key facial feature. This is especially effective against OpenCV’s face detection algorithm.
- Eyes: Partially obscure one of the ocular regions: The position and darkness of eyes is a key facial feature.
- Masks: Avoid wearing masks as they are illegal in some cities. Instead of concealing your face, modify the contrast, tonal gradients, and spatial relationship of dark and light areas using hair, makeup, and/or unique fashion accessories.
- Head: Research from Ranran Feng and Balakrishnan Prabhakaran at University of Texas, shows that obscuring the elliptical shape of a head can also improve your ability to block face detection. Link: Facilitating fashion camouflage art
- Asymmetry: Facial-recognition algorithms expect symmetry between the left and right sides of the face. By developing an asymmetrical look, you may decrease your probability of being detected.
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You can easily convert any cheap camera into IR one (including webcams, dashcams and smartphone cameras). Just remove the IR filter (blue piece of glass between sensor and the lens). To remove visible spectrum you can replace it with a piece of exposed camera film. Interesting stuff can be seen that way, like hot objects glowing, when they are completely dark to the naked eye.
Hyperface - very much reminds me of The Ugly Teeshirt in William Gibson’s Zero History, a shirt printed with an ugly, distorted face designed to confuse CCTV systems.
As always, he was ahead of the curve on this.
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You might have to visit a museum for that.
re: Removing the filter: did that with a web cam, but another I tried had the filter bonded to the sensor, so no go.
I think there was a pair sent through a time machine to each package of the THHGTTG game. I must have lost mine, though.
