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Hyper-realistic masks to go on sale in Japan

52 points| ystad | 5 years ago |reuters.com | reply

31 comments

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[+] FriedrichN|5 years ago|reply
How long until this will be used in high profile crimes? When wearing a balaclava your face is obscured on security camera footage, this will allow criminals to lead law enforcement down the wrong path and frustrate their efforts by having them look for a person that does not exist.
[+] hilbert42|5 years ago|reply
Perhaps that's the unfortunate penalty for allowing the unregulated introduction of facial recognition technology everywhere and anywhere without a proper debate. Simply violating people's privacy just because technology has enabled the practice isn't acceptable.

Remember, no one first asked any of us for our permission to be tracked by our physical features just for walking down the street and going about our daily business as we've always done, nevertheless this all-pervasive technology was introduced without our permission nor with any public debate.

I posted this comment several hours ago in a duplicate of this story. Having now had time to think about it, I seriously believe we're just beginning to see the beginnings of a new war on privacy and that this new technology has now given ordinary people the means of fighting back. If this war escalates because of criminals/bad actors then don't blame us—we didn't start it:

"Perhaps we'll all be wearing them sooner than we think out of necessity to counter facial recognition.

(It's just occurred to me that a blank conformal OLED version of the mask would be the ultimate form — one's face could dynamically change on-the-fly whilst one's out and about. That would give all-pervasive surveillance systems a decent run for their money.) ;-)"

[+] jobigoud|5 years ago|reply
> a person that does not exist.

They'll run it through face recognition and find the original person that provided their face data and arrest them.

Plot twist, a criminal will flood the market with masks of their own face to get plausible deniability for the actual crime.

[+] FerretFred|5 years ago|reply
UK reader here .. sign me up for a Priti Patel mask, STAT!
[+] mattowen_uk|5 years ago|reply
The article copy states that the faces are from real people who submitted photos. The next logical step here I think is using AI to create a unique face that [probably] isn't in any Face Recognition database.
[+] k1e|5 years ago|reply
This can be a way to trick street surveillance/face recognition systems.
[+] xyzal|5 years ago|reply
One Weird Trick security camera manufacturers don't want you to know
[+] afterburner|5 years ago|reply
How hyper-realistic is it really though if it's made using a 3d printer? Looks great in the photo but how about in person? The texture of the "skin" has got to be off.
[+] Cthulhu_|5 years ago|reply
Hyper-realistic is probably exaggerated a bit, but it looks realistic enough to not really notice in the street if you're not paying attention, and to not be detectable at all for a camera (unless they're IR cameras, the heat will be wrong)
[+] mewpmewp2|5 years ago|reply
I feel like it is a bit of a bait and switch with current pandemic going on and at some point finally mentioning that these masks won't protect against viruses.
[+] ceilingcorner|5 years ago|reply
Most masks don’t protect against viruses. The point is to prevent your germs from going to others, which functionally should work with any type of mask.
[+] ilaksh|5 years ago|reply
Anyone know how they make such realistic masks?