This ‘adversarial’ pattern can prevent surveillance cameras from detecting you
Researcher Bill Swearingen has developed computer-generated patterns that can be applied to clothing or vehicles to scramble surveillance camera detection algorithms. The project, called noRecognition, aims to provide individuals with a way to opt-out of automated tracking and facial recognition systems.
Why it matters
This technology highlights the escalating arms race between privacy advocates and the increasing deployment of AI-powered mass surveillance in public spaces.
Bill Swearingen has spent the past year running largely the same test, over and over again. The goal was to produce a computer-generated pattern that could block the surveillance cameras lining America’s streets from detecting it.
Some 31 million tests later, Swearingen says he can now produce patterns on-demand that, when applied to clothing and objects, prevent some of the most commonly deployed license plate readers and surveillance cameras from detecting whatever the pattern covers, from people to vehicles.
His project, which he calls noRecognition , allows people to escape the automatic detection and algorithmic surveillance used across the U.S. and beyond.
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