Prototype garment beats AI algorithms

German design studio WertelOberfell, in collaboration with a consortium of technical partners, sought to find a way to protect people from a very modern hazard: CCTVs equipped with AI human-recognition algorithms that are capable of human detection and can use facial recognition algorithms to track our behavior and even our emotions. The resulting prototype is a poncho named “Ignotum” (Latin for “the unknown”) that is capable of confusing AI algorithms, essentially helping to make the person wearing it invisible to the virtual domain. After understanding how the AI works, the Ignotum developers rigged their own AI-enhanced camera system to find out which patterns would go undetected and found that a glowing grid pattern could confuse the CCTV computer, indicating only “33 percent person.”