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Hacking Big Brother With Help From Revlon
skids writes "All those futuristic full-face eyeliner jobs in dystopian cyberpunk fiction might not be that far off the mark. A New York University student spent his thesis time exploring computer vision technology (OpenCV) for ways in which one could confound first-stage algorithms that initially lock onto faces. Then he mixed in a bit of fashion sense to predict future geek chic. Now, whether you want to go for the coal-miner look just to stay out of the data mine, that's up to you."
No, if you read TFA, its more of a mad-max bad 80s thunderdome / ww1 dazzle / ranger camouflage than blackface or a football player's mascara.
So this stuff I've been wearing serves a purpose? Cool!
Harvey's research involves the reverse engineering of OpenCV, which its creators describe as an open-source "library of programming functions for real-time computer vision."
Oh the reg whatever shall we do with you...
The point is, there's an endless variation of disguises you can use to thwart the software as long as certain programed traits it looks for (darkness above eyes/lighter nose and cheekbones/symmetry) are thrown off by face markings and hairstyles. I think this would be cooler with glowing phosphorescent paint, but I think the point is to blend in so the software doesnt look too closely at you.
So, if I don't want them to mine my data, I should mine some coal?
Kratos laughs at your facial recognition software.
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
There's no hacking involved, and the word hacking wasn't even necessary for sensationalism's sake. Seriously, I know people write misleading headlines to get eyeballs, but a perfectly accurate title could have been just as enticing: how about "Evading Big Brother with Help from Revlon?" Isn't evading about as interesting as hacking, Big Brother-wise?
Even when they could be honest, accurate, and interesting the Slashdot editors simply don't bother. Why?
Seems to me an aeasthetic patch covering one eye could work just as well - if not better. Plus it's relativelly less conspicuous (especially for a man)...and you might always need some medical procedure requiring later covering of one eye, right?
PS. Harrrr!
One that hath name thou can not otter
From our "How to look non-conspicuous department": http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/images/paint-992000a.jpg
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Moving spots of high contrast (reflections off light skin against the dark makeup) would be even easier to detect though.
This just breaks one algorithm currently in use. If it actually became "geek chic" then they'd change the algorithm.
Whatever happened to just wearing a ski mask when committing a "crime"? I'm not sure I'd feel less silly painting my face than simply putting on a mask.
Whats the point of bypassing facial recognition if you've still been recorded in a manner that could identify you? It would help abate real-time face-triggered alerts, but not much else.
If people start doing this, I predict it would only be a matter of time before the police would categorize anyone with a painted face as a possible terrorist threat, such as how the ski mask is considered now.
Together with the summary (mentioning "coal-miner look") - an interesting throwback to the era of socrealism in my post Soviet Block place; fixed by Moscow also on coal, where every respectable miner should do at least 200% of the norm.
One that hath name thou can not otter
Isn't geek-chic the same as always by definition? i.e. pizza/sweat stained cartoon/computer/who farted t-shirt with optional neck beard. Is that so hard?
If this is what future geeks are going to look like, I'ms sure as hell staying in the industry!
That is all.
I think it would be hilarious for criminals to just wear Halloween masks of celebrities. Did Justin Bieber rob 62 banks last week? Did Britney Spears steal a carton of Newports in 8 different states in two days? Sure would put new meaning on the american people being robbed. CNN: "Did President Obama rob 1000 people today? Facial recognition technology tips off authorities."
Hey, I am just a guy asking questions. What were we talking about again?
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
I think the word is "inconspicuous".
Follow me
And then geek chic would adapt.
Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
Do any of these cameras use infrared lighting? If so, you could come up with makeup that is normally invisible, but shows up just enough on the cameras to fool them.
When hiring I hardly give that $100,000 education any weight at all, unless they have on the job experience they've applied it to, and their references can back that up.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
I wonder how common nIR graffiti is? It would be visible in 'night vision' CCTV cameras, and often to regular CCD and CMOS cameras with poor filters, but invisible to the naked eye.
In fact, it's incredibly easy to swap the nIR blocking filter in a cheap camera for an IR-pass/optically opaque filter. Leaving invisible notes for people could be pretty fun.
Cover half your face with hair and I bet the facial recognition will miss you.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
This is a clever trick, but I'm not sure if it would defeat a system that utilized thermal imaging. Presumably your face would look (pretty much) the same to an LWIR camera regardless of your make-up.
We could all cover our faces with mud the same way Dutch did when he was outsmarting the Predator, but I'm only willing to go so far in my attempts to stay off the grid ;-)
So, in other words, this is the facial recognition equivalent of a CAPTCHA?
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1163919/monty_pythons_flying_circus_how_not_to_be_seen/
He 'discovered' basic camoflage:
Diagonal lines confuses facial recognision in humans too.
Anyone that has been in the Military/Police could have told him that.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
What he basically did was putting haar-like features on the face. Haar-like feature are derived from Haar wavelet.
Altering your appearance is pretty easy. Altering your habits of motion like your gait, your hand gestures, even to some extent your patterns of facial expression.... not as easy.
Tweet, tweet.
so why do you fucking care so much about a fucking word? "hacking" has evolved to have different meanings. big fucking deal
Ok, number one, mellow out. Why you're legitimately angry over my response is beyond me. Number two, words may change, but this use of the word 'hacking' is way, way outside even the most peripheral usage of the word today. Words, however they change or whatever word you select, still have to *communicate* with the people to whom you are speaking, and this word was badly chosen enough to nearly fail at communication. I don't care what word he chooses so long as it actually says something accurate *to me* and that word said something distinctly *not* accurate, so I called him on it. I'm not some insane language purist or grammar nazi, I merely called the guy on choosing the wrong word for his intended audience in addition to misusing the dictionary definition of the word.
So in other words, to avoid detection everyone should wear a Rorschach mask?
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
GHAAAHH!!!!
I can't keep a straight face or my sanity with that line.
Okay n00b[1], here's how it works:
1. There will soon be an 'App for that'
2. Some start-up will sell you a virtual coal mine.
3. It will be incorporated into Google Earth/Maps.
4. ???????
5. Profit!!!!
[1] You must be new here!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
This is the essence of true 'hacking'.
It's not all about 'computers' on 'the internets'.
He is definitely 'hacking' the facial recognition system to give interested parties the ability to avoid/negate it.
Ascribe to the Newspeak, imbibe that Koolaide, let the popular Media 'teach' you, and keep you informed...
Oh yeah,...GET OFF MY LAWN, YOU PUNKS!!!!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
That will trigger a buffer overflow and segmentation fault in the recognition software, consequently snow-crashing the surveillance network wherever I go.
(Or maybe settle for sending a temporary sleep command.)
.. would be a DROP DATABASE statement literally On Your Face, or a 'Groucho Marx' set. (now THAT would be hilarious)
The three laws of thermodynamics:(1) You can't win. (2) You can't break even. (3) You can't even quit.
I am less interested in evading Big Brother tech, than I am interested in the ceasing of these intrusions in our lives. We should modify our appearances to avoid being tracked in everything we do? Those who are old enough in the US surely remember being told over and over again that part of what made the US system superior to the soviet system was that US citizens were free to live their lives without constant government scrutiny. We did not have to "show our papers". Now, everything that was shown to us as abuses of the soviet system against its citizens exists here now on steroids and with technology no one would have dreamed possible back then. Let us not get in the mindset that we should try to avoid these technologies, but rather let us work to roll attitudes back to the point where we are free to live without constant government oversight. Can anyone deny "we are being watched" is the new norm, and the new norm is swiftly crossing over into tyranny? Still, I am heartened by the fact that many see facial recognition for what it is, and at least have the attitude that they should be free to thwart it. Of course, understand, at some point there will be laws prohibiting you from painting your face in order to defeat the software. It will be your duty as a citizen to allow yourself to be scrutinized by the government every second of every day. That will then be "the new norm".