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'Privacy Visor' Can Fool Face-Recognition Cameras

itwbennett writes: Dark shades aren't enough to go incognito in the age of face recognition camera systems. For that you need the Privacy Visor developed at Japan's National Institute of Informatics. The visor consists of a lightweight, wraparound, semitransparent plastic sheet fitted over eyewear frames. It works by reflecting overhead light into the camera lens, causing the area around the eyes to appear much brighter than normal.

21 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Kind of self-defeating by timrod · · Score: 5, Interesting

    These glasses seem kind of pointless in that from what the article says, they pretty much have to be that big in order to actually work - the earlier model by the same company was even bigger. With something like this, the goal should be to make them as surreptitious as possible so that the person wearing them doesn't stand out in a crowd and thus draw attention from whatever security organization is likely monitoring the cameras. $250 (at current exchange rates anyway) is also far too high of a price tag for a pair of what are basically glorified sunglasses.

    Now, if they looked like normal sunglasses (or better yet could be built into prescription glasses) and were under $100, I could see myself getting a pair of these if I planned to be in an area with heavy CCTV usage.

    1. Re:Kind of self-defeating by freeze128 · · Score: 3, Funny

      $250 to look like an idiot? Put a nylon stocking over your head for the same effect.

    2. Re:Kind of self-defeating by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The basic reason they work is probably that current face recognition programs are confused by them. The light being shined back is a minor influence at best, it does not blind the cameras. A few tweaks and the system will recognize faces again.

    3. Re:Kind of self-defeating by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 2

      There's a simpler and free solution already.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  2. Re:30 thousand? I think I'll just sit back and rel by Michael+Woodhams · · Score: 2

    Thirty thousand yen - roughly $250-$300.

    --
    Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
  3. I'll give it a week by penguinoid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Within the week, a new update will allow
    a) recognition of people wearing the "Privacy Visor"
    b) selling their name to people advertizing privacy products

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  4. wait, what? by slashmydots · · Score: 2, Funny

    How about they just look for the one wearing the gigantic white freaky sunglasses? I'd say just wear a ski mask. It's slightly less conspicuous than those glasses.

  5. Looks familiar by fustakrakich · · Score: 2

    Is this is what the wearer sees?

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  6. Like All Defenses... by The+Raven · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... this will last only until the facial recognition algorithm is trained to ignore it. If it won't fool a human, it won't fool an algorithm for long. Better fixes are ones that exploit the weaknesses of the sensors rather than attacking the algorithm. The other example, cited right in TFA, uses a more effective long term strategy of hampering the sensors.

    Upgrading the algorithm? Cheap, and only needs to be done once. Upgrading every sensor to filter IR? Not impossible, but much more expensive and thus likely to be skipped by businesses.

    --
    "I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
    1. Re:Like All Defenses... by Djoulihen · · Score: 2

      At least they'll get some customers : the companies working on face recognition algorithms will be probably buy a few glasses to populate their database and update their algorithms.

  7. Just Wear a Cheap Burka by BoRegardless · · Score: 3, Funny

    Given the weak, wimpy politically correct crowd, they'll be legal to wear in the near future.

  8. I thought what I'd do was... by o_ferguson · · Score: 2

    ...I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.

    --
    - In Soviet Korea, only old people loose all their bases to Natalie Portman's petrified hot grits overlords.
  9. Re:infrared by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I wear a fedora when I go out

    Yes, we'd guessed that.

  10. Chindogu by src1138 · · Score: 2

    It appears to reflect overhead light by virtue of being white and slightly angled - wow, science. I guess albinos won't be too concerned about this technology.

    "A 2012 version, powered by a lithium-ion battery, included LED lights around the nose that shined near-infrared light toward cameras. Computer-vision systems were also fooled by the bright light, but the visor looked dorky and required a bulky power source."

    So the new one is the same, just no leds or power source. Dorkiness has been maintained...

    All this so the cameras don't think you have a face. They still record you, and can tell you are a person by the way you move. And since you will be the only douchedork wearing these around, you should be easy to find.

    1. Re: Chindogu by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 2

      Gait recognition is easy to fool - just change your gait. A small stone in one shoe will do it, as will throwing a couple extra insoles in one shoe to make one leg longer. Also, both balance and gait vary between a pair of flats and stilettos.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    2. Re:Chindogu by pla · · Score: 3, Insightful

      All this so the cameras don't think you have a face. They still record you, and can tell you are a person by the way you move. And since you will be the only douchedork wearing these around, you should be easy to find.

      I only have a small objection to simply having a fixed length history security camera record me for the off chance that a robbery happens during its two week storage window.

      I have a huge objection to having a network of near-100% coverage cameras actually identifying me and logging my every movement while out in public. I don't care whether Madison Avenue or the NSA does it, I strongly object to both.

      So yes, wearing giant bug-glasses, or a Jedi robe, or an IR LED tiara, or any other obvious means of concealing my face would stand out like a sore thumb to a human reviewing the footage; if it keeps the camera from automatically checking me in and out of some Big Brother sponsored version of FourSquare, however, I'd call that a drastic improvement vs an increasingly obvious future state of zero privacy.

  11. IR LEDs did it better years ago by The+Rizz · · Score: 2

    You could always just stick a couple of bright IR LEDs on normal glasses or a hat and achieve the same or better effect. They have the added bonus of having their existence be invisible to the naked eye, so nobody in person knows you're even messing with the CCTVs. Even more importantly, you don't have to wear some bizarre oversize glasses that would look out of place anywhere except a scifi convention.

  12. Simpler solution from baseball fields. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 2

    Simply wear your baseball cap front side back. It has fooled thousands of batters into thinking the fielder is looking oneway while the fielder was in fact looking the otherway. Computer vision recognition systems would be stumped by a face with no eyes, no mouth, no nose but lots of hair! I am a genius. Where do I collect my brownie points?

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  13. Re: or... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 2

    "It's the Unknown Comic!"

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  14. Re:And as an added bonus by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

    clearing a space around as people attempt to avoid proximity with you.

    Is that supposed to be a bad thing?

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  15. Re:30 thousand? I think I'll just sit back and rel by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 2

    The United States of America will still exist in 30-40 years?

    Did you perhaps mean instead the New Confederate States of America? The Republic of Texas? The Free Republic of Idaho? Mexarkana? Absaroka? The Jefferson Freehold? New Deseret? The Republic of Sequoyah?

    --
    You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.