

New algorithms produce patterns that could hide eyesores in public places - jcr
http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/algorithms-produce-patterns-that-could-hide-public-eyesores-0521

======
carlob
Some considerations by watching the video in the post.

I think testing stills with fixed lighting is pointless: once the light starts
flickering through the foliage, or the time of the day changes this things
will become very obvious.

Note how the video is not really a video, but a series of morphed stills, I'm
sure that a moving viewer and binocular vision will make those things much
more obvious.

Why not just get them painted by some artist? Make them beautiful instead of
trying to camouflage them.

~~~
iSnow
>Why not just get them painted by some artist?

Over here in Germany they do this in quite some cities:

[http://frankkoebsch.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/bemalte-
trafoha...](http://frankkoebsch.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/bemalte-
trafohauser-2/)

[http://www.juliusbaasner.com/architektur.php?projekt=1](http://www.juliusbaasner.com/architektur.php?projekt=1)

[http://www.appolloart.com/2014/04/28/stadtwerke-bernau-
liebe...](http://www.appolloart.com/2014/04/28/stadtwerke-bernau-lieben-es-
auch-verspielt/)

One can debate how beautiful the results turned out but some painted
transformer stations or communications boxes gave me a smile upon seeing them
here in Berlin.

~~~
holajr
Living in Taiwan this was also the first thought that came to my head: Isn't
there already an efficient, sympathetic, and good solution to this problem?

Painted Box (Taiwan): [http://bit.ly/1if5VOb](http://bit.ly/1if5VOb)

Painted Boxes (World):
[http://www.ettoday.net/news/20130828/262333.htm](http://www.ettoday.net/news/20130828/262333.htm)

Painted Boxes (London):
[http://www.fundesign.tv/view.php?aid=3893](http://www.fundesign.tv/view.php?aid=3893)

I would much rather see a mural that offers a reprieve from its surroundings
than to at some point realise the concrete ugliness I'm staring at is simply a
facade created to ensure my vision of any concrete ugliness is not, in fact,
obscured.

------
muyyatin
Seems like it might make people more likely to run into camouflaged obstacles
(particularly those vision-impaired). Imagine running through a park at night
with camouflaged electrical boxes.

I heavily agree with painting artwork on them. A few blocks away, there is a
painted electrical box that I have become quite attached to.

------
ajuc
Military camouflage is more obvious application. As others pointed out we
don't really want things in public space to be invisible.

------
jcr
At the bottom of the article is a link to the paper, but on the project
website (also linked) there is a "High Resolution" version of the paper:

[http://andrewowens.org/papers/2014_camo_hires.pdf](http://andrewowens.org/papers/2014_camo_hires.pdf)

