Whether you like it or not, you are being watched — but that’s not to say there’s nothing you can do about it. There’s a new set of spectacles on Kickstarter that might help you bamboozle even the most sophisticated facial-recognition tech.
The Eko shades, as they’re called, are rimmed with a type of retroreflective material that bounces light back to exactly where it came from. Most surfaces reflect light by diffusing or scattering it in all directions, but this material is specially designed to reflect light back at the exact same angle as it arrived from. If caught in flash photography, Eko will send most of the light directly back to the camera’s sensor. In most cases, this will likely result in an image that’s underexposed for everything but the rims of your glasses — thereby making it much more difficult for facial-recognition software to identify you.
The only downside, however, is that this clever design probably won’t help much for any camera that doesn’t require a flash, which means you’re still not safe from most security cams. The design certainly isn’t flawless, but it makes up for those shortcomings with a reasonable price. You can currently get your hands on a pair of Eko shades for about $45 on Kickstarter — which isn’t half bad for a set of stylish spectacles that’ll obscure your mug next time you roll through an intersection, or fuzz out your face when the guy sitting in front of you starts snapping selfies on the bus.
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