Adversarial Clothing Designed to Fool Facial Recognition Systems

There are many companies manufacturing adversarial clothing designed to confuse facial recognition systems.

It’s a cool idea, but I worry that it’s mostly security theater:

“Our patterns play with that chaos, confuse algorithms and make it way harder to pin you down,” he said.

Bell, however, said “none of these products are tried and tested, and a lot of these surveillance technologies can deal with a little resistance … [but] even if the designs don’t necessarily work perfectly, fashion is also a visible sign of resistance.

“This is consumers collectively coming together to make a visible statement.”

Without serious testing, there is no reason to trust the technology. And even with testing, there is no reason to trust that a new version of the facial recognition software doesn’t break the anti-surveillance properties.

I don’t want people to mistakenly rely on this stuff.

Tags: , , , ,

Posted on August 6, 2026 at 7:04 AM • 21 Comments

Comments

Not really anonymous • August 6, 2026 7:43 AM

In the past people had success with computer vision dazzle makeup, but that was a relatively long time ago.

Rontea • August 6, 2026 8:26 AM

The age of machines now studies our faces more faithfully than our mothers ever did, and we, like children, hope that a jacket patterned with chaos might shield us from the omnipresent, dispassionate eye of the state.

Yet what is this if not a confession? A confession that man, once the image of God, now hides in the folds of fabric, pleading for a little privacy from his own creation. Fashion becomes our last philosophy—silk and stitches shouting what our spirits no longer have the courage to defend. These garments, absurd and majestic, are the new flags of a civilization that mistrusts itself. And perhaps, in that absurdity, there is still a faint, flickering dignity.

bart • August 6, 2026 8:31 AM

The pictures look about as ridiculous as I had imagined.

Not sure how they think wearing brightly colored flashy pants is going to defeat facial recognition.

And this also seems like the classic example of trying to hide making one more obvious. Like wearing full camo in a Walmart. We can still see you, and now we’re just looking for the guy in full camo.

Winter • August 6, 2026 9:14 AM

The idea is far from new.
https://starofmysore.com/back-to-front-human-face-masks-to-keep-tigers-at-bay/

Something like this using IR LEDs projecting onto your faces is also described in Fall, or Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson.

It will simply be an arms race. The moment a system is rolled out wide enough, people will find the holes in its recognition.

As the AI will not use human senses and human brains, it will classify faces different from humans. These differences can be exploited.

It can be out-of-spectrum patterns and messages, confusing clothing and print patterns, anything. If there is a hole, it will be found, and history tells us there will be holes.

Jim • August 6, 2026 9:17 AM

re: “There are many companies manufacturing adversarial clothing ”

Burkas? The kind with a narrow vert slit for the eyes.

That’s all that came to mind …

PS. My idea from years back has been to install scales/weighing mats at the entrances and exits of establishments. With the computing power we have today strain gauges (they are a thing used by mech engineers to measure mechanical flexure of structures) in a mat with in X by Y array of strain gauges could measure individual foot pressure/weight to ‘profile’ the entrance and departure of ‘guests’ and the like.

Jim • August 6, 2026 9:21 AM

Winter writes: “It will simply be an arms race. ”

I’m also thinking face paints, like football and baseball players use when they draw a dark line below their eyes to confuse the pitcher, other players, line umpires, coaches, fans et cetera.

KC • August 6, 2026 11:01 AM

oh no.

of all things, it could be a place to hold a conversation. or initiate a spirited, or even a quietly thoughtful, debate. you could never know if you were truly hidden.

i don’t think i would be prepared to wear this. i would love to hear the chitter chatter though 🙂

fun privacy tee

Chris • August 6, 2026 1:52 PM

This might help explain why urbanites now wear Mossy Oak and Realtree apparel unironically. I say this somewhat jokingly because, surely, there must exist sets of baseline data from several hunting seasons worth of surveillance video of people walking around in photo-realistic camouflage. Anyone looking for a PhD topic?

Clive Robinson • August 6, 2026 3:25 PM

@ Bruce, ALL,

With regards,

“designed to confuse facial recognition systems.”

Can we please stop calling them,

“Facial recognition systems”

Because even the “street kids” know it’s not “faces” the systems follow.

It’s why they move in “tight groups”
or gangs and swap loose clothing around, or all ware near identical “puffer jackets” and the like. When they move they,

“mill and mix”

Along with the now very old,

“Ducking and diving”.

Because they know for now it’s not the AI they have to confuse but,

“The jury of peers”…

Which are still in theory “human”, not that, that is going to stand much longer in the UK… With the government enlarging “single justice” trials and the like. And increasing use if AI in the court and tribunal systems.

They claim it’s to “save money” or “save waste” and “shorten trial times”. The reality though is they want “conviction rates” to rise.

One recent scandal is putting people on “remand” and using the fact they will be “held in jail” for at least as long if not longer than any sentence they could receive at trial. Then then getting told they could be out in a very short time if the “just signed a XXX” etc that is made to sound like some minor agreement to not go somewhere or do something etc. In practice such a form is used as a confession etc,

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7FfK0JQ6e2w

That can haunt you for the rest of your life.

r • August 6, 2026 5:48 PM

can tshirts jailbreak the panopicon? someone is looking to etch them directly in silicon.

maybe i’m missing the actual filtration point.

r • August 6, 2026 5:54 PM

how many qrcode shirts would it take to perform a DoS at each layer from reverse.

maybe compiler bugs to confuse the inputs?

JG5 • August 6, 2026 6:37 PM

I almost was too lazy to look for it, but I may have posted a story about the bank robber who bathed in lemon juice so that he couldn’t be seen by the bank security cameras. Happy to be reminded of the good old days.

Glad that @Clive and @Bob Paddock still are going concerns. Musk and his billionaire buddies are the closest candidates for John Galt and Galt’s Gulch that I could ever imagine. I make no representations as to the remaining clock time on this link. It may be deeply negative.

I recommend thinking of computer security as being part of a much larger security architecture. Your secure computer won’t do much for you if you are dying of hypoxia, dehydration, starvation, or exposure. Or kinetic energy poisoning. Too many crazy people with guns. Or drowning in AI dogshit.

The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong but You’ll Never Know What It Is (Part 1)
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/the-anosognosics-dilemma-1/
By ERROL MORRIS June 20, 2010, 9:00 pm
Errol Morris on the influence and uses of photography.
Opinionator – A Gathering of Opinion From Around the Web

Tags:
anosognosia, Anosognosics Dilemma, bank robberies, decision-making, donald rumsfeld, Dunning-Kruger Effect, incompetence, knowledge, lack of knowledge

Existence is elsewhere. — André Breton, “The Surrealist Manifesto”

  1. The Juice

David Dunning, a Cornell professor of social psychology, was perusing the 1996 World Almanac. In a section called Offbeat News Stories he found a tantalizingly brief account of a series of bank robberies committed in Pittsburgh the previous year. From there, it was an easy matter to track the case to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, specifically to an article by Michael A. Fuoco:

ARREST IN BANK ROBBERY,
SUSPECT’S TV PICTURE SPURS TIPS

At 5 feet 6 inches and about 270 pounds, bank robbery suspect McArthur Wheeler isn’t the type of person who fades into the woodwork. So it was no surprise that he was recognized by informants, who tipped detectives to his whereabouts after his picture was telecast Wednesday night during the Pittsburgh Crime Stoppers Inc. segment of the 11 o’clock news.

At 12:10 a.m. yesterday, less than an hour after the broadcast, he was arrested at 202 S. Fairmont St., Lincoln-Lemington. Wheeler, 45, of Versailles Street, McKeesport, was wanted in [connection with] bank robberies on Jan. 6 at the Fidelity Savings Bank in Brighton Heights and at the Mellon Bank in Swissvale. In both robberies, police said, Wheeler was accompanied by Clifton Earl Johnson, 43, who was arrested Jan. 12.[1]

Wheeler had walked into two Pittsburgh banks and attempted to rob them in broad daylight. What made the case peculiar is that he made no visible attempt at disguise. The surveillance tapes were key to his arrest. There he is with a gun, standing in front of a teller demanding money. Yet, when arrested, Wheeler was completely disbelieving. “But I wore the juice,” he said. Apparently, he was under the deeply misguided impression that rubbing one’s face with lemon juice rendered it invisible to video cameras.
…

cartoons filled with rootkits • August 6, 2026 8:18 PM

a rootkit a day keeps the dr. away!

i love my jailers, they watch every boot, they lovingly log and i enjoy the kindness!

just the other day i was expecting a hoo-hoo! and got a woo-woo! and it was the best feeling ever!

because when you have a vm bios rootkit your fun is always at hand!

i love you guys <3 muuaaaahh there's a kiss for you.

you see, i don't even have to click submit, they submit for me everyday and i laugh at their foolishness.

why purge the 'kit when you can turn it into something fun?

i love you, my jailers. <3

Johnny Bigelow • August 6, 2026 8:26 PM

Like others, my first thought was something like a burka.

Perhaps a jungle hat with mosquito netting would be more comfortable, but probably would need a darker netting or maybe even a multi colored netting.

JG5 • August 6, 2026 8:30 PM

I tried to post earlier, but got stopped out repeatedly. Hopefully the first version of that will pass moderation. I remembered a different approach to obfuscation. Can’t recall whether it has been discussed, but you could paint a lot of numbers in a particular pattern on the back of your car. If the license plate were thrown in that mix, it would be difficult to pick it out. I saw a guy with a disturbingly deformed or disfigured head today. That would make it harder. If your shirt were some kind of e-ink display, you could constantly shape-shift what is presented to the cameras. On my planet, we call it data poisoning. The only hope.

Jan Halvorsen • August 6, 2026 8:33 PM

bart: Not sure how they think wearing brightly colored flashy pants is going to defeat facial recognition.

Better than not wearing pants, I think.

I imagine that the most confusing might be a mirror-like film attached to the face. Maybe combine that with mirror-like clothes that reflect light.

unloved broom handle • August 7, 2026 2:34 AM

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When we pretend that we’re dead
They can’t hear a word we’ve said
When we pretend that we’re dead
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bashful meat grinder • August 7, 2026 4:02 AM

“the name of my ship is the Lollipop.” “It’s just been commissioned. It’s a good ship.”

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