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Replace Your Face: Anti-Surveillance 3D-Printed Mask Lets You Pass As Someone Else

21st Century Wire says…

This could certainly turn the Orwellian police state on its head…

URMEChicago-based artist Leo Selvaggio has started URME Surveillance, who aim to produce a prosthetic mask that could potentially render CCTV tracking and tracing obsolete. Different levels of product will be available, from inexpensive paper versions, to state-of-the-art 3D-printed models. Selvaggio wants to make his face available to all his users to wear in public, will full permission to anyone, anywhere to become his virtual doppelgänger.

One of the most widely deployed police and NSA surveillance systems is called Virtual Shield, and can not only track you, but can also pull up all of our corresponding information as well. The URME mask would make this impossible.

Selvaggio was initially inspired by the concept of Guy Fawkes in the film V for Vendetta, but wanted to create a mask which could be worn in public. He admits he is aware that users could easily commit crimes using his face, but the mere existence of this technology almost nullifies law enforcement using CCTV to convict Selvaggio for any such offense. The irony and potential to subvert the state’s obsession with security is obvious here. Watch his promotional video…

In addition to facial recognition, new systems are also using other biometric and physical identification and diagnostic methods – coding and track individual walking signatures, as well as voice print signatures. The voice capture is still very limited depending on proximity to public microphones and cell phone triangulation, and walking signatures can be easily overcome by altering one’s cadence, limp, or by wearing different footwear. So facial recognition is still the prime identifier used by police state snoops.

It’s also very likely that this trend will spin-off into party mask and theme party tricks. No doubt, there are a number of other high-profile celebrities and political figures whose faces would be popular choices for prospective doppelgängers, but we would strongly condemn anyone who would foolishly attempt to do anything brash or illegal – like robbling a bank wearing a celebrity mask (for those readers inadvertently making that connection), although any veteran police detective will tell you this has been done many, many times in the past…

1-Tony-Blair-Arrested-CCTV-Camera
See the full CNET report here…

Uncomfortable with surveillance cameras? “Identity replacement tech” in the form of the Personal Surveillance Identity Prosthetic gives you a whole new face

CNET

If the world starts looking like a scene from “Matrix 3” where everyone has Agent Smith’s face, you can thank Leo Selvaggio.


His rubber mask aimed at foiling surveillance cameras features his visage, and if he has his way, plenty of people will be sporting the Personal Surveillance Identity Prosthetic in public. It’s one of three products made by the Chicago-based artist’s URME Surveillance, a venture dedicated to “protecting the public from surveillance and creating a safe space to explore our digital identities.”

“Our world is becoming increasingly surveilled. For example, Chicago has over 25,000 cameras networked to a single facial recognition hub,” reads the URME (pronounced U R Me) site. “We don’t believe you should be tracked just because you want to walk outside and you shouldn’t have to hide either. Instead, use one of our products to present an alternative identity when in public.”

The 3D-printed resin mask, made from a 3D scan of Selvaggio’s face and manufactured by ThatsMyFace.com, renders his features and skin tone with surprising realism, though the eyes peeping out from the eye holes do lend a certain creepiness to the look.

Creepiness is, of course, part of the point here, as the interdisciplinary artist takes a his-face-in-everyone’s-face approach to exploring the impact of an increasingly networked world on personal identity.

“When you wear these devices the cameras will track me instead of you and your actions in public space will be attributed as mine because it will be me the cameras see,” the artist, who’s working toward his MFA at Chicago’s Columbia College, says on a recently launched Indiegogo page for the products. “All URME devices have been tested for facial recognition and each properly identifies the wearer of me on Facebook, which has some of the most sophisticated facial recognition software around.”

It turns out some states have anti-mask laws. And Selvaggio — whose earlier project You Are Me let others use his social-media profiles — says he’s considered the possibility that anyone wearing his face in public could engage in illegal activity…

Continue this story at CNET

READ MORE POLICE STATE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Police State Files

 

 

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