Fashion meets technology with the CV Dazzel’s “anti-face” looks designed to avoid detection by face-recognition. The company claims at least one trademark look has proven unrecognizable to “several state-of-art face detection algorithms.”
CV Dazzle gets its name from a WWI naval camouflage called Dazzle which implemented cubist-inspired designs to disrupt visual continuity of a battleship in order to deceive the naked eye from determining a vessel’s size and orientation. The company aims to explore how fashion can be used as camouflage from face-detection technology by creating designs that circumvent the algorithms used by facial recognition – playing with spatial relationship of key features like symmetry and tonal contours, to create the “anti-face” fashion statement.
The ornate designs features in the company’s lookbook feature funky hairstyles extending over and around the face, cheekbones, foreheads and lips decorated with rhinestones, spikes, and bold shapes painted with sharp outlines.
Asymmetry is out with CV Dazzle’s “anti-face” makeover tips that warn against enhancing facial features (no contouring or smoky eyes), recommend obstructing or obscuring the bridge of the nose, and altering the elliptical shape of the head. The company clearly advises against wearing masks, as they can be illegal in some locations. Instead they recommend modification utilizing contrast, tonal gradients, and playing with spatial relationships between dark and light using hair, makeup, or your preferred fashion accessory.
The extreme designs and implementation of CV Dazzle’s designs are probably not about to be adopted en masse any time soon. However, the company’s strategy reflects a reaction to the growing presence of facial recognition technology, and with a more pervasive presence of facial scanning in public places, there’s bound to be more solutions presented in order to trick the technology.
June 18, 2018 – Susan Stover
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