Man Covers Car in Special Wrap That Breaks Flock Cameras’ Electronic Brains
This is genius. The post Man Covers Car in Special Wrap That Breaks Flock Cameras’ Electronic Brains appeared first on Futurism .
As Flock, a surveillance company, continues to face declining public support following the loss of numerous contracts with US cities, cybersecurity researcher Bill Swearingen has devised a novel technique to thwart their cameras. His project, named "noRecognition," involves using a special wrap that creates patterns designed to confuse Flock's automatic license plate readers and other surveillance devices.
Swearingen showcased the effectiveness of this wrap at Def Con, a cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas, by wrapping a 2009 Toyota Yaris in vinyl featuring the logo of a popular automotive publication. Despite the car appearing chaotic from a human perspective, the wrap successfully evaded detection by multiple algorithms, including those used by Flock and Axon.
Swearingen developed the pattern using a reinforcement learning model trained on evasion techniques, successfully confusing all 11 open-source detection algorithms he tested. Citizens are increasingly frustrated with Flock's presence, resorting to various methods to disrupt the company's operations, ranging from hacking and tampering to creative solutions like Swearingen's wrap.
As outrage grows, people are exploring innovative ways to opt out of being tracked, with Swearingen's efforts contributing to a broader trend of using "adversarial patterns" in clothing and car wraps to exploit weaknesses in computer vision systems.
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