Spy-blocking goggles take camera-shyness to a new level.
Posted 01.23.2013 at 2:00 pm
10 Comments
Privacy Visor
Near-infrared lights create noise that prevents a camera's facial recognition software from registering your features.
National Institute of Informatics
Worried about people stalking you on Facebook Graph Search? Soon you may be able to pose for every picture in a privacy visor that would prevent facial recognition software from identifying you in photographs.
Japanese scientists are developing a pair of glasses that can protect against facial recognition software used by social networks and in hidden cameras.
To obscure a person's face, the "privacy visor" uses a near-infrared light source that human vision cannot see, but a camera can. The small lights around your eyes and nose inhibits facial recognition software from registering your features when your photo is taken.
The prototype's creator, Isao Echizen of the National Institute of Informatics in Japan, says the glasses would be reasonably priced. Companies have expressed interest in commercializing the product since it was broadcast on TV Tokyo last year.
On the down side, they're not quite as fashionable as Google Glasses, and require lugging around a pocket power supply.
[BBC]
10 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Popular Tags
Technology
140 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.
Innovation Challenges
Popular Science+ For iPad
Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page
Download Our App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
February 2013: How To Build A Hero
Engineers are racing to build robots that can take the place of rescuers. That story, plus a city that storms can't break and how having fun could lead to breakthrough science.
Also! A leech detective, the solution to America's train-crash problems, the world's fastest baby carriage, and more.
Popular on Popsci
Most Commented
Technology
- The Latest In Classroom Protection: A Handheld Bulletproof Whiteboard
- DARPA Can See You... From 17,500 Feet In The Air
- Smoke Screen Company Thinks It Has The Perfect Defense Against School Shooters
- How Chinese Hackers Infiltrated The New York Times
- Check Out The Winning Design For The Tiny New York Apartments Of Tomorrow
- Today On Mars: Opportunity Begins Its 10th Year Of Mars Roving
- Iran Has Successfully Launched A Monkey Into Space
- Starchitect Norman Foster To Design A 3-D Printed Lunar Base
- NASA Will Launch A 13,000-Square-Foot Solar Sail Next Year
- IBM's Warmth-Activated Gel Can Break Up Tough Bacterial Biofilms And Kill Superbugs
Most Emailed
Technology
- All Of The World's Undersea Cables In One Map
- Russian Rocket Crashes In The Pacific, Carrying U.S. Satellite
- Roam The Grand Canyon Virtually With Google Maps
- NASA Will Launch A 13,000-Square-Foot Solar Sail Next Year
- "Twitching" Material Dislodges Bacteria From Ship Hulls
- Starchitect Norman Foster To Design A 3-D Printed Lunar Base
- How Chinese Hackers Infiltrated The New York Times
- Popular Science Q&A: How NASA Selected The 2013 Class Of Astronauts
- Jackets Grown From Bacteria And 10 More Feats Of Bio-Engineering
- The 11 Coolest Ideas In Biodesign
Most Viewed
Technology
- All Of The World's Undersea Cables In One Map
- Russian Rocket Crashes In The Pacific, Carrying U.S. Satellite
- Roam The Grand Canyon Virtually With Google Maps
- NASA Will Launch A 13,000-Square-Foot Solar Sail Next Year
- "Twitching" Material Dislodges Bacteria From Ship Hulls
- Starchitect Norman Foster To Design A 3-D Printed Lunar Base
- How Chinese Hackers Infiltrated The New York Times
- Popular Science Q&A: How NASA Selected The 2013 Class Of Astronauts
- The 11 Coolest Ideas In Biodesign
- Jackets Grown From Bacteria And 10 More Feats Of Bio-Engineering
Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Contributing Writers:
Clay Dillow | Email
Rebecca Boyle | Email
Colin Lecher | Email
Emily Elert | Email
Intern:
Shaunacy Ferro | Email
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2012 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Hint....a mask would work just as well, and honestly would probably freak fewer people out (means less attention drawn toward you).
I miss the days, when spies wore funny mustaches, big rubber noses, wigs, glasses, strange cloths and walked with limp ..... Nostalgia sigh....
Oh, and made communications with their shoe phone! ;)
Bagpipes, the best solution is often the simplest and who could argue with a price under $2?
Well, Robot, completing a call from a pair of platforms with a 6 inch heel might be conspicuous, but entertaining to onlookers nonetheless.
nkfro,
Get Smart, did not have a 6 inch heel.... oi.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Smart
i think you guys are over estimating the look of these things, the light is invisible to the naked eye, all that you would see staring at these glasses is somebody wearing some cool see through glasses. the same technology can be adapted to just about any pair of eye glasses to the point where all that people would notice is a dude wearing some glasses.
i have a pair of aviators, if i find some time i'll do the same thing with them...
to mars or bust!
Protected from facial recognition maybe, but from ridicule...
I think I can identify this gentleman in a line up, with or without his glasses, lol.
You know, we can always fall back to the old tools, humans find humans and if the software finds 50 similar looking people, but did not identify the person we are looking for precisely, the software is still helpful.
How about this, I will add a routine to my picture\video identity software call Red Flag Null Factor.
When searching, if the program comes across of a face
that is similar to what I am looking for and when looking at the ....
EYES = NULL, nothing, not human.
NOSE = NULL, nothing, not human.
MOUTH = NULL, nothing, not human.
....I display a REDFLAG to get attention of human to look
at the picture\video more closely!