New Glasses Will Block Face Recognition Software

AVG Innovation Labs has a new invention to help the fight against tyranny and constant monitoring: a pair of glasses that will make you invisible. With cameras watching your every move and face recognition software evolving, we all need a cloak of invisibility when we go out in public. AVG is developing just the right cloak.

According to AVG, there are a number of reasons why you want their glasses:

• The increasing use of smartphone cameras in public places means it’s more likely unsolicited images taken of us may end up online.
• Big Data projects such as Google’s StreetView highlight the possibility for our faces and identities to appear in the public domain.
• Advancements in facial-recognition technologies, such as Facebook’s DeepFace, could soon give a private corporations power to not only recognize us, but also cross-reference our faces to other data found online.

“Through a mixture of technology and specialist materials, privacy wearables such as invisibility glasses can make it difficult for cameras or other facial recognition technologies to get a clear view of your identity”, AVG claims.

While the device is still in the prototype phase, early testing indicates that this pair of glasses can make it much harder for cameras or other facial recognition methods to violate your privacy and identity.

AVG explains that “through a mixture of technology and specialist materials, privacy wearables such as invisibility glasses can make it difficult for cameras or other facial recognition technologies to get a clear view of your identity.”

The glasses were officially announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.Reflective material in the fame 0f the glasses and a series of infrared lights surrounding the eyes and nose do not interfere with the spectrum of visible light and with how other people perceive the wearer, but will interfere with surveillance cameras making facial recognition much harder, if not impossible.

AVG notes that “Rather than designing a product for market release, tech experts are investigating how technology can adapt to combat the daily erosion of our privacy in the digital age. Don’t expect to see them for sale any time soon”.

So yes, this might be a prototype but innovation in this area is bound to push the issue of privacy on the forefront of the technology market, hopefully motivating other manufacturers to follow suit.