Now You See Me, Now You Don't

"Nowadays, many surveillance devices can detect human bodies."

"Cameras on the road have pedestrian detection functions and smart cars can identify pedestrians, roads and obstacles."

"Our InvisDefense allows the camera to capture you but it cannot tell if you are human."

Report, Professor Wang Zheng, University of Wuhan, China

"China's 'Big Brother' technology is never switched off, and the government hopes it will now show its effectiveness in snuffing out unrest."

Alkan Akad, China researcher, Amnesty International

 

A low-cost ($72) 'invisibility cloak' designed to conceal the human body from AI-monitored detection by security cameras has been invented by four graduate students from the University of Wuhan. The purpose is meant to conceal the personal identity of whoever wears the cloak. Called the InvisDefense, the coat looks like any camouflage garment. However, it was designed with a customized pattern, algorithm-designed to blind the camera.

The coat's embedded thermal device emits varying heat temperatures by night to create an unusual heat pattern meant to throw off detection by security cameras using infrared thermal imaging. In preliminary trials the students tested the coat's efficacy on campus security cameras, purposing to evade recognition. The results of the experiment indicated a 57 percent reduction in accuracy of pedestrian detection.

As the student inventors described their work, they faced a challenge to develop a coat that could confuse both the human eye and cameras. "We had to use an algorithm to design a least conspicuous image that could render camera vision ineffective", explained Wei Hui, the computer science graduate student tasked with designing the coat's algorithm."Security cameras using AI technology are everywhere. They pervade our lives. Our privacy is exposed under machine vision."

 

Some of the world's most advanced surveillance systems including millions of cameras on street corners and at building entrances are a hallmark of China's state surveillance of its vast population. As a control mechanism the surveillance system is used by police to track the presence of dissidents, ethnic minorities and migrant workers.

 

There are other countries that make use of facial recognition technology, and many others that enact laws to protect citizens from constant surveillance with the use of facial recognition technology. In Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police faced public anger with the announcement of their use of Clearview AI software after having first denied its use. 

 

Clearview's algorithm matches faces to a database comprised of over 20 billion images indexed from the Internet, with social media applications included. Facial recognition software found its use in 15 child sexual exploitation cases. The RCMP justified its use on a trial basis to "determine its utility to enhance criminal investigations". Services in Canada through Clearview AI underwent suspension with the RCMP responding to a joint federal-provincial privacy investigation. 

 

"What Clearview does is mass surveillance, and it is illegal", ruled Canada's federal privacy watchdog. Current legislation in Canada fails to adequately regulate facial recognition or artificial intelligence technologies, however. "Since such a legislative framework does not exist at this time a national pause should be imposed on the use of FRT, particularly with respect to police services", concluded a report by Members of Parliament.

The coat's embedded thermal device emits varying heat temperatures — creating an unusual heat pattern — to fool security cameras that use infrared thermal imaging. Photo by WEI HUI