Researchers say powerful, artificially-intelligent surveillance systems capable of tracking your every move may have an unlikely kryptonite: a simple printable patch.
In a demonstration, engineers from KU Leuven, a university in Belgium, showed how subjects wearing specially designed patches -- about the size of a vinyl record -- were able to elude an algorithm designed to identify humans.
In a YouTube video two researchers, one without the patch and another with the colorful card hung around his neck, are shown standing in front of a camera working in tandem with an algorithm to identify both objects and humans in the room.
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In a demonstration, engineers from KU Leuven, a university in Belgium, showed how subjects wearing specially designed patches -- about the size of a vinyl record -- were able to allude an algorithm designed to identify humans.
Above, the person on the right remained undetected
While the demonstrator without the patch is clearly marked by the algorithm, his counterpart seems to be completely invisible.
Patterns printed on the patches could be used to design t-shirts or other types of clothing to achieve the same results, say researchers.
Their cloaking patterns currently only work on one type of algorithm, they say.
'We believe that, if we combine this technique with a sophisticated clothing simulation, we can design a T-shirt print that can make a person virtually invisible for automatic surveillance cameras,' the say in a paper published on Patterns like the one's demonstrated by researchers could be used for a number of purposes, say experts, not all of them benevolent.