What if I told you you could defeat incredibly high tech
surveillance with a decidedly low tech tool?
And no, I'm not talking about spray painting a security camera, I'm talking about simple clothing
that can throw off advanced AI algorithms and facial recognition.
It turns out that certain algorithms can be essentially reverse engineered in a manner that fools them
even if your face is in plain view. A few years ago, researchers at a university in Belgium
took a closer look at a common image recognition algorithm
called YOLO V2, it's literally the name,
and worked out how to produce images that the algorithm either wouldn't recognize as human
or wouldn't even recognize as any kind of object.
The resulting images, called adversarial patterns, often resemble brightly colored abstract art
that the algorithm can't make heads or tails of. But can any of us?
Not only does this lead the algorithm to think there isn't a person in the image at all,
but the patterns also make for some pretty cool looking clothing that there's apparently
already a market for. Some of the patterns effectively make the wearer
invisible to AI, while others make the computer think
that it's actually looking at something else, like a dog. Of course, the method isn't foolproof,
as a more sophisticated algorithm could get released at any time
and would still recognize what it's looking at, and it won't do much if an actual person
is sitting on the other side of the security camera either. But why bother trying to be invisible to AI
when you could just spam it with noise? We're starting to see clothing made to resemble
other objects that automated cameras commonly look for,
such as this dress that's covered with license plates,
or this scarf with photorealistic faces. This way, you don't have to beat its algorithm,
you just feed it with junk data, and you're also making a rather bold fashion statement.
Of course, if you're serious about remaining hidden, you could try this approach,
which uses these masks that have a lens-like effect to trick cameras, but keep you recognizable
to fellow humans, or even this prototype that projects different faces onto your own.
It's like a scanner, darkly, assuming that you can be bothered to wear something like that around town.
But regardless of what method anyone uses to fool an AI camera system,
exactly how widespread are these surveillance technologies
that researchers and designers have felt the need to explore ways to beat them?
Actually, more widespread than you might think. There have been plenty of headlines
about how the authorities in mainland China have used smart cameras to track and identify citizens,
but dozens of other countries are using similar technologies for everything from cracking down on dissidents
to more benign pursuits like traffic management and smart cities, and crowd security at sporting events.
And these networks largely cannot function if they can't even detect objects in the first place.
Regardless of why you're being spied on, it's understandable if you want to try it and opt out
while still being able to walk around a city center. But fair warning, even clothing
that utilizes adversarial patterns doesn't work all the time,
even against image recognition algorithms it was designed for. Like if maybe you're just standing
kind of two sideways or something, you know?
Suddenly setting up my own society in the woods sounds pretty appealing.
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