
Japanese scientists launch face recognition-blocking glasses - dsr12
http://rt.com/news/glasses-block-face-recognition-544/
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btilly
I know who that is! That's the guy with the funny glasses!

Technology like this does not prevent recognition unless lots of people are
using it. One glance at the glasses, and I doubt there will be much uptake.

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kabdib
Exactly. Line up with online purchase data and your friends database, and you
have even better recognition.

Also: RGPs, as in <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GI_glasses>

[When I was 10 I had black nylon frames like those, and yes, I was made fun of
a lot, so I became a kernel hacker :-) ]

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amaxerlite
As someone who's worked with computer vision, I doubt this is fully effective.
It might prevent an exact match, but a good facial recognition algorithm can
still whittle down the total possibilities. That's because your cheeks, ears
and nose are also used as identifying features. The only effective cover is
something that covers whole face.

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mcantelon
Yeah, for it to be truly effective it would be to have some sort of halo of IR
LEDs that are brighter than the ambiant surrounding light. This is probably
not viable due to power requirements/cost.

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edj
You could wear these glasses, perhaps in addition to CV Dazzle[1], and be
instantly recognizable in real life, and yet unrecognizable to computers. It's
an interesting trade off.

[1]: <http://cvdazzle.com/>

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Tekker
I doubt you would wear them 24/7, and you'd only want to wear them if you
intentionally did not want to be recognized (at an airport/casino/robbery) but
the fact that you had them on would draw attention to yourself, plus I suspect
it'd be easy to trace back to the purchaser if the adoption rate were low.

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chewxy
I don't get how near IR is able to distort facial recognition software.

Let's say I have a camera that cannot record in IR range, just the full
spectrum. I can still run a facial recognition software using those photos.

I am well and truly lost about how it works

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ansgri
Almost all image sensors see near IR very well. Most consumer lens block IR
very well, to make image similar to that perceived by human. Not so for CCTV
lens: they don't block IR to allow human-invisible lighting via LEDs just like
in these glasses.

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huggah
Which implies that this wouldn't do anything to diminish facial-recognition
from consumer devices (e.g., facebook auto tagging, Google Glass, etc.)?

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tripzilch
Try filming an IR remote control (while pressing a button) with your phone's
camera. It'll light up. I think it's pretty cool actually :) (might need to do
it in a dark room, depending)

I suppose the GP was talking about actual non-phone photo cameras?

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josemariaruiz
One step closer to Ghost in the Shell
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laughing_Man_(Ghost_in_the_Shel...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laughing_Man_\(Ghost_in_the_Shell\)))

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qbrass
Since you brought it up, the Laughing Man does the exact opposite, using image
recognition to hide himself.

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lifeisstillgood
See Elton John for sunglasses that mean you cannot be recognised, apart from
"Who the hell is that in the glasses - Elton John?"

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deutronium
Wouldn't some old fashioned mirrored aviator glasses work just as well.

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mcantelon
This obscure's the nose's biometrics. But other than that I think you're
right.

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jgv
<http://cvdazzle.com>

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conroe64
They must have never heard of Groucho Marx glasses

