back to article Even modest makeup can thwart facial recognition

Researchers at cyber-defense contractor PeopleTec have found that facial-recognition algorithms' focus on specific areas of the face opens the door to subtler surveillance avoidance strategies. In a pre-print paper titled "Novel AI Camera Camouflage: Face Cloaking Without Full Disguise," David Noever, chief scientist, and …

  1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Prog Rockers

    They walk among us - undetectable

    1. FBee

      Re: Prog Rockers

      DOES BRITANNIA RULE? PROG is from the ANZAC countries. FUSION is American.

      CAPE STATUS If you’re in a FUSION band and you show up for the gig wearing a cape, you get fired.

      Let’s just make this simple: If you are allowed to get away with any Rick Wakeman-style bullshit, then you are in a PROG band.

      (DID THE KEYBOARDIST QUIT THE GROUP SO HE COULD SOLO OVER AN ICE CAPADE? That’s PROG, man.

      That’s some of the PROGGIEST shit I’ve ever heard of.)

      BLACK GUY? If there’s a black guy in the band, then it’s FUSION. (That probably had more to do with the UK/US split than anything.)

      SPRECHEN SIE DEUTSCH? Ha-HA! Trick question! If the band speaks German, then clearly it’s KRAUTROCK. Fooled you, fucker!

      Courtesy of - Fusion Or Prog? Thoughts On The Dead

      1. Jedit Silver badge
        FAIL

        "If the band speaks German, then clearly it’s KRAUTROCK."

        That's not true at all. Sometimes it's kosmische.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Prog Rockers

        "PROG is from the ANZAC countries"

        Bullshit, prog rock began with King Crimson & Van Der Graff Generator and continued with Yes, ELP, Gentle Giant & Genesis, all British bands

      3. Fr. Ted Crilly Silver badge

        Re: Prog Rockers

        Just throw it in the trash Can...

      4. I am David Jones Silver badge

        Re: Prog Rockers

        In my head this has always been a community where we’d ‘duz’ each other (sprichst du) and not ‘siez’ (sprechen Sie). Even when spouting nonsense…

        But what do I know, far too long in Germany and I still can’t get my head around it…

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Prog Rockers

      That's where gait recognition is useful.

      Although I've always thought that all that would be needed to fool that is a removable insole or orthopaedic knee bandage.

      1. tiggity Silver badge

        Re: Prog Rockers

        An irritating small pebble in your shoe / boot makes a huge effect on gait - really surprising how a bit of discomfort alters your whole walking style.

        I would hazard a guess there has not been much effort to subvert gait recognition yet?

        I could imagine a user rigged up with a few electrical devices (think TENS style machines on steroids) to induce pain in various areas (ideally feet, legs, back, shoulders, arms so you hit lots of areas for maximum disruption to "default" gait) and so cause a notable gait change from their "default".

        1. TRT Silver badge

          Re: Prog Rockers

          Do you mean a bit like this?

    3. herman Silver badge

      Ministry of Silly Walks

      Gait detection - The Ministry of Silly Walks was supposed to be a joke, not an evasion manual for crims.

  2. Mike 137 Silver badge

    "However, gait recognition is becoming quite powerful..."

    Roll on the Ministry of Silly Walks1

    Monty Python's Flying Circus series 2 episode 1 15 Sept. 1970

    .

    1. Joe W Silver badge

      Re: "However, gait recognition is becoming quite powerful..."

      Nice try. Remember the skit? The guy came in to have his silly walk registered....

      1. David 132 Silver badge
        Thumb Up

        Re: "However, gait recognition is becoming quite powerful..."

        ...and was offered a role on the Anglo-French silly walk project - Le Marche Futile!

      2. Ken Shabby Silver badge
        Megaphone

        Re: "However, gait recognition is becoming quite powerful..."

        oh whey oh, ay oh whey oh

        Walk Like an Egyptian

        Don’t you know?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "However, gait recognition is becoming quite powerful..."

      "gait recognition" or "gait analysis" is my best means for navigating society, followed by voice recognition. Prosopagnosia is a thing. 'Gait' is the only way outside the home that I could recognize my own mother when she was more than a few feet away from me. I can recognize friends seeing them walk in the dark far away, but not necessarily if I walk up to them in daylight while they're standing and silent.

      Gait is subconscious and the result of so many small unacknowledged influences in your early life. It is what is 'natural' to you, and is quite peculiar to oneself. Think about stories where people disguised themselves. Often they imitated old people, because you have to change your gait extravagantly - slowed, methodical, limping, etc. I'm not sure that imitating another same-age person would work, too much of you would bleed through.

      So, yes, buy a face mask *and* special shoes. Easiest disguise for walking is stones in your shoes - forces you to walk differently. No help for how your upper body moves, tho.

      Much later, someone will realize they can equip doctors and physical therapists with AI analyses of short walks. My orthopedic surgeon friend gets better health impressions from how you walk than from any other diagnostics. There have been studies of longitudinal changes in gait as supplemental diagnostics for various mental and physical declines. Heck, just watching my doctor walk down a hall told me he was going to retire shortly. And two months later...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "However, gait recognition is becoming quite powerful..."

        >Gait is subconscious and the result of so many small unacknowledged influences in your early life.

        Stops being though when you want it too - spycraft, actors, dance training etc - you'll struggle to find two films where great actors (eg Alec Guinness, Daniel Day-Lewis, Peter O'Toole etc) have even vaguely similar gaits because they work on that very early on if not first when creating the role.

      2. parlei

        Re: "However, gait recognition is becoming quite powerful..."

        I wonder how changing between stiffer boots, trainers, "barefoot shoes" (fivefingers?) affects this?

        1. Mr Sceptical
          Trollface

          Re: "However, gait recognition is becoming quite powerful..."

          One of those, "spy disguise secrets" articles had the reference to putting a pebble in your shoe to force a change of gait.

          Similarly, tighter clothing can restrict upper body movement too. Or carry a heavy bag in one hand to alter balance.

          It's tiring to maintain but I think most of El Reg readership have the nous to be proficient at escape and evasion for at least a day or two.

          Not entirely sure how prominent makeup is less obvious than a face mask though, did the researchers try a trollala mask instead?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: "However, gait recognition is becoming quite powerful..."

            Well, I for one am glad that for once women have a tech advantage. Let's be honest, it doesn't happen that often.

            1. Helcat Silver badge

              Re: "However, gait recognition is becoming quite powerful..."

              Well, there's the differences in skirts and dresses verse trousers and leggings, different heel height of shoes, or boots, and makeup styles and hair styles: Women vary their appearance and how they walk and never realised it all works as a disguise against AI recognition!

        2. Helcat Silver badge

          Re: "However, gait recognition is becoming quite powerful..."

          Don't need to change shoes: Knee braces/straps, support strips (used for sports injuries) or any alteration to clothing that restricts muscle movement in some small, but still significant, way: All of those would make noticeable changes to a person's gate. hell, tight underwear can do that, too: If it's abrasive/rubbing against the skin and threatens blisters or a rash: That'll change how you move.

          Flip side, however: How many people walk in a way that's similar enough to cause misidentification? Don't forget: Fingerprints were deemed unique only by taking 100 sets, then selecting 1 of them to compare to the others to show they were unique to the extent of 1 in 100. There was no check for change over time, but for the purpose of identifying one suspect out of a dozen? It was good enough, and the FBI was then able to fool people into thinking fingerprints are unique to the individual and never change.

      3. IGotOut Silver badge

        Re: "However, gait recognition is becoming quite powerful..."

        "No help for how your upper body moves, tho."

        Stick your hands in you back pockets, it completely changes your motion.

        1. Killfalcon

          Re: "However, gait recognition is becoming quite powerful..."

          Or wear a cape, with epaulets.

    3. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

      Re: "However, gait recognition is becoming quite powerful..."

      That is why I always push a drawing pin through the sole of my shoe when I am out being an activist.

    4. Roj Blake Silver badge

      Re: "However, gait recognition is becoming quite powerful..."

      Adopting a random gait also confuses the sandworms, so it's something we should all be doing.

  3. DS999 Silver badge

    How long before CCTV

    Starts using LIDAR, or dot mapping like iPhone's Face ID? Makeup might fool 2D only face recognition, but that's only going to remain the state of the art for public surveillance for so long before it becomes cheap enough to improve with 3D mapping technology. First in higher security areas like airports and government buildings (which may already be using it AFAIK) but it'll eventually trickle down to the mass market.

    Already where CCTV is smooth video rather than 2 fps freeze frames getting multiple facial angles would probably be sufficient (given sufficient processing power) to tease out the 3D map well enough such that makeup isn't fooling it.

  4. david 12 Silver badge

    Gait recognition

    Long pre-dated AI. According to common detective / action stories, defeated by putting a rock in your shoe.

    1. Blazde Silver badge

      Re: Gait recognition

      A Segway works well too

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Gait recognition

        Actually any mobility device, and good luck finding the gait of that amongst many similar ones.

        OK, you sold me on those electric things now. Plus you can let them explode when needed, and it will always be deemed accidental.

        I must stop reading spy novels :)

        1. Blazde Silver badge

          Re: Gait recognition

          "You may not recognise my gait because I'm currently flying a jetpack. The name's Bond.."

    2. Bebu sa Ware
      Coat

      Re: Gait recognition

      common detective... stories

      Memorably at the end of The Usual Suspects the disabled con man Roger Kint (Spacey) hobbles out custody on to the street, straightens up a walks briskly away and gets into a waiting car.

      A pair of crutches would work too and I think Sherlock Holmes used these and other prostheses in his disguises.

      Perhaps there is a market for disposable latex face masks that make you look like somebody like you but not you? ;)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Gait recognition

        Perhaps there is a market for disposable latex face masks that make you look like somebody like you but not you? ;)

        Well, it's a good excuse to visit Berlin :)

        (I would have thought the Trump mask would be best in the 'clowns' category, ditto for Boris Johnson :) ).

  5. katrinab Silver badge
    Meh

    I've noticed in some of these systems that if I tie my hair back, the gender recognition thing goes from eg Female 96% confident, to Male 54% confident.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      > Female 96% confident, to Male 54% confident

      I'm a male and I'm very rarely 54% confident.

    2. AMBxx Silver badge

      Have you tried adding a fake beard?

      1. Fr. Ted Crilly Silver badge

        'Are there any women here today'?

    3. Mr Sceptical
      Windows

      So it doesn't change with a Gandalf length beard then?

  6. Helen Waite

    Walk without rhythm and it won't attract the worm.

    1. Fr. Ted Crilly Silver badge

      A little bit of this, a little bit of that ...

  7. Sceptic Tank Silver badge
    Gimp

    Send in the clowns

    More reason to go outside looking like KISS or Alice Cooper.

  8. l8gravely

    I ran into this recently, but in a more prosaic way. I was cooking some meet for a beef stew and the grease ended up on my glasses. Not enough to stop me from seeing stuff, but enough to stop my iPhone from being able to recognize my face. It was really wierd... and sent me down all kinds of wrong paths trying to figure out what was wrong with my phone, as opposed to me. Or more accurately, my glasses. Once I cleaned off the schmutz, all was well again.

  9. IGotOut Silver badge

    Good luck in the UK.

    Where 75% of teenage girls look identical.

    1. sabroni Silver badge

      Re: Where 75% of teenage girls look identical.

      What the fuck are you talking about? UK boys all look distinct do they?

      What is it with the pointless gender bollocks, it's young people who all look the same! And half the time you can't tell if they are a boy or a girl!!!

      AND I COULDN'T GIVE A FUCK HOW THEY LOOK.

      (apologies to bob, I think it works better with all the capitals at the end.)

  10. Roj Blake Silver badge

    CV Dazzle

    What Americans would call a resume so fabulous that recruiters can't bear to look at anyone else's.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ask Yourself.....What Is This S**T Being Used For? Who Is Using It?

    Reference: Jean Charles de Menezes

    Key Words: "False", "Positives"

  12. TRT Silver badge

    True...

    I watched Blue Velvet last night, as a thanks to David Lynch, and at one point I was convinced I was watching Tim Currry in Rocky Horror.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Some Suggestions: Hannibal, David, Guy.....

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_Lecter

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin_Sane

    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/382575501813

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