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Comment by pedalpete | Hacker News Reader

I've often wondered if it would be possible to wear something that would prevent your face from showing up in a photo, unless you wanted it.

Something outside the visible spectrum which would cause a anomoly on the pixels on the CMOS sensor.

Any thoughts?

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I usually wear a pantyhose over my head in public spaces. Also makes it possible to withdraw money from any bank without having it deducted from your account.

There's https://cvdazzle.com/, but it's against facial recognition, not the photo itself.

It'd be far easier, cheaper, and less time consuming to just put a bag over your head.

This badge is a step in the right direction. Those products linked above looks like it rely on flashes. If someone invents something that will distort the face of the wearer on all kinds of mobile phone photos, they will get rich. Everyone is walking around with a great camera and taking photos like there is no tomorrow. But not everyone want to be on your insta (or whatever) feed.

I remember a while back seeing a POC where someone mounted high(ish) powered IR LEDs onto glasses, overexposing CCTV cameras/obscuring your face.

Not sure if would work for regular cameras though (which may well be partly shielded from IR), I think CCTV cameras are often sensitive to IR so that they can work at night (by shining an IR light to illuminate an area).

I do not know how effective is it, but highly reflective clothes could help too:

https://www.wired.com/2015/02/paparazzi-proof-clothing-thats...

You mean something like a camera that detects phones and then emits a laser beam onto their sensor?

Cameras sense the visible spectrum, so unless your face is invisible to people's eyes, it'll be visible in a photo.

There are some cheeky ways to defeat flash photography, but flash photos are pretty rare.

Camera's do pick up infrared. Look at the infrared LED on a remote control (while pressing a button) through your phone camera.

Incidentally, "night vision" security cameras exploit this by clustering infared LED's around the lens.

So, you could have some kind of head band that shines LED light down over your face I guess!

Or you could spray your face with this - https://www.phantomplate.com/

That would take care of flash photography at least.

https://theishu.com/ is a scarf designed for this purpose.

I believe that is an amazing idea and something that I would love to use...

No idea on the technical side thought...

In many jurisdictions in the US it is a felony to wear a mask in public.

First of, REALLY?? In the US? That surprises me.

However, what defines a "mask"? If this is a technical gadget that prevents a photo, is it a mask? Real life people can see you, just not cameras (hopefully)

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