AVG develops glasses that obscure face to facial recognition software

Security solutions firm AVG demonstrated this week at Mobile World Congress a prototype pair of glasses that makes it difficult for facial recognition software to recognize the wearer’s face and take a photo of their face.

AVG’s glasses use a set of infrared LEDs around the eyes and nose areas that are only visible to digital cameras.

As a result, the wearer’s face is hidden by a bright bloom when the facial recognition system’s camera attempts to take a photo of their face.

As an extra privacy protection measure, the glasses also features a retro-reflective material on the surface which reflects the light from a camera flash back at a camera, which overexposes and obscures the image.

Though the glasses fail too obscure the wearer’s body or rest of the image, individuals are at least able to hide part of their face to provide them with some level of privacy.

Don’t expect to be able to purchase these anti-facial recognition software glasses soon though. In a release, AVG said. “rather than designing a product for market release, tech experts are investigating how technology can adapt to combat the daily erosion of our privacy in the digital age.”

Article Topics

biometrics  |  privacy  |  prototype