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Anti-Surveillance Camouflage for Your Face
The Atlantic ^ | 7-24-14 | Robinson Meyer

Posted on 07/27/2014 9:37:26 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic

he NSA made me slather my face in make-up.

Or, it didn’t make me, exactly. But last spring, I found myself wandering around D.C., wearing dazzle camouflage for the first time. It was a sunny Saturday, the capital swamp neither frigid nor muggy-oppressive—perfect for walking. It took me 45 minutes to get all the makeup on, to get the pencil right and the hair dangled just so.

I spent the day hanging out with some friends around Adams Morgan, a neighborhood seemingly developed by former hippies who had gone into non-profit C-suites or opened boutique restaurant-bars. I told my friends why my face had splotches of dark makeup on it but didn’t say much to anyone else, and that’s when the looks began.

should step back. I had slathered the paint on my face in order to hide from computers. The patterns in which I applied the paint were important: To the pixel-calculating machinations of facial recognition algorithms, they transformed my face into a mess of unremarkable pixels. In the computer’s vision, my face caused a momentary burst of confusion.

That’s why the patterns are called computer vision dazzle (or CV dazzle). When it works, CV dazzle keeps facial-recognition algorithms from seeing a face. The technique takes its name from the dazzle camouflage of the two World Wars: The Great Power navies sought to protect their ships not by hiding them among the waves but by obscuring their size and movement. CV dazzle was developed by the artist, designer, and entrepreneur, Adam Harvey, who created the patterns as a student at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: computerdazzle; cvdazzle; makeup; nyu; tsa
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CV Dazzle is an art!

1 posted on 07/27/2014 9:37:26 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Guess I can mark the Smithsonian off the bucket list.


2 posted on 07/27/2014 9:41:53 AM PDT by bgill
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Sounds like a great way of standing out like a sore thumb and I suspect it doesn’t work nearly as well as this guy thinks it does. Some facial recognition software is pretty sophisticated.


3 posted on 07/27/2014 9:44:36 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin.)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
Camoflauged Ships


4 posted on 07/27/2014 9:46:45 AM PDT by blam (Jeff Sessions For President)
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To: cripplecreek

It is a long article but this is the first attempt I have seen. If the camera was infrared it could be easier to fool with out looking so odd. A hologram could be designed to mess with the focus of cameras. Lots of things. No cameras in my woods though, darn.


5 posted on 07/27/2014 9:47:58 AM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

It would be easer to just wear a balaclava. No one would notice that.


6 posted on 07/27/2014 10:00:32 AM PDT by davius (You can roll manure in powdered sugar but that don't make it a jelly doughnut.)
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To: davius

Why would you wear Greek pastry? Oh...


7 posted on 07/27/2014 10:07:05 AM PDT by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

It seems to me that one would have to make many assumptions about the face recognition algorithms to think this would work.

And there must be a variety of algorithms in various systems. The software business it pretty competitive.

I don’t buy it.


8 posted on 07/27/2014 10:08:51 AM PDT by MV=PY (The Magic Question: Who's paying for it?)
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To: davius; Yo-Yo
Yep...that'd work.


9 posted on 07/27/2014 10:08:58 AM PDT by ErnBatavia (It ain't a "hashtag"....it's a damn pound sign, number sign, or octothorpe. ###)
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To: cripplecreek

I was looking at GWU with my son And we had extra time. So, we walked around the White House (just a few blocks away). We were pointing and talking and looking at the security.

Around the Treasury building a guy nudged me. I didn’t look up. He hit me lightly and yelled “Hey”. I looked up and there was a guy with a built up hat. And he pressed the side of it and walked on quickly.

While I can’t be sure. I am almost sure that he has the job of taking pictures of faces that spend too much time looking at the White House. He snaps a picture of the face and moves on maybe listing to the earpiece he had for instructions on who to snap. So my face is sitting in a NSA database somewhere.

They don’t have a name to go with it. But if I show up again somewhere they may try to get that as well. For now, they just seemed to want my face to match against other faces.

The NSA straddles the line of being worrisome. For me, I think they have crossed it over and over again. But they seem to stay close to it.


10 posted on 07/27/2014 10:13:41 AM PDT by poinq
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To: mountainlion
Most of the solid state cameras have their sensitivity peak in the IR. This is usually considered a feature since the addition of an IR source makes it work quite well in the dark. A necklace with super-bright LEDs in the IR ought to pretty much saturate any real world camera you are likely to encounter. Much less obvious as well.

Freedom ≠ Free Stuff☭
I, for one, welcome our new Cybernetic Overlords /.
Mash Dobbshead® for HTML, bop Hello_Cthlhu for XAMPP

11 posted on 07/27/2014 10:15:40 AM PDT by Mycroft Holmes (The fool is always greater than the proof.)
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To: mountainlion

They are there...just well-hidden or camouflaged. It is futile to resist.


12 posted on 07/27/2014 10:19:46 AM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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To: poinq
Image and video hosting by TinyPic
13 posted on 07/27/2014 10:20:30 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin.)
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To: cripplecreek

NSA North Socialists America?


14 posted on 07/27/2014 10:22:10 AM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: Yo-Yo

LOL! The honey in the pastry helps it to stick.


15 posted on 07/27/2014 10:26:07 AM PDT by Flick Lives ("I can't believe it's not Fascism!")
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To: Mycroft Holmes
A necklace with super-bright LEDs in the IR ...

Can you flesh that out a little ... I don't understand...

16 posted on 07/27/2014 10:27:00 AM PDT by GOPJ (Liberal elites want Mexicans to be a servant class that supplies cheap drugs and easy women and kids)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Judging by the dry and parched skin on the author’s lips in the huge first picture, I’d say the guy needs to start drinking water. He looks dehydrated. Wearing pink wires in his ears (ear buds) and an odd paint on his cheeks sure made him stand out to everyone but the computer camera.


17 posted on 07/27/2014 10:36:25 AM PDT by miele man
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To: GOPJ

It would be like shining a bright flashlight directly at the camera, but since it is in the infra-red it wouldn’t be visible to human eyes while at the same time blinding the camera.


18 posted on 07/27/2014 10:36:51 AM PDT by Mycroft Holmes (The fool is always greater than the proof.)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
LED caps work at night and inside by blinding cameras.

A large pair of sunglasses also works.

Wearing a shirt with someone else's face works, too.


19 posted on 07/27/2014 10:37:36 AM PDT by Jewbacca (The residents of Iroquois territory may not determine whether Jews may live in Jerusalem)
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To: GOPJ

http://www.justicecaps.com/

Only works inside/at night.


20 posted on 07/27/2014 10:39:36 AM PDT by Jewbacca (The residents of Iroquois territory may not determine whether Jews may live in Jerusalem)
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