Facial recognition technology is everywhere, and some individuals are concerned that governments or large corporations would misuse their personal data.
As a result, privacy-conscious designers have attempted to construct wearable devices that outwit facial recognition technologies. Cap-able, an Italian startup, is the most recent to follow this practice.
Many alternatives for assisting people in outwitting facial recognition include wearing a mask. But the Italian fashion business Cap-able promises to do the same thing without needing a mask. The company’s revolutionary technology takes the blend of fashion and technology to a whole new level by deceiving security cameras into thinking wearers are someone else.
Cap_able’s official website explains the brand’s mission: “It wants to educate the population on the importance of privacy and human rights by addressing the problem of misuse of facial recognition technology.”
It goes on to emphasize how crucial it is to protect people from any algorithm-based software abuse.
“The need to protect the individual from the abuse of new Artificial Intelligence technologies is felt more and more,” Cap_able states, “and the doubts about its ethical sustainability in the long term are still many.”
More than just a layer of warmth, the website adds: “The algorithm that shields facial recognition is integrated into the texture designed to be worn without losing effectiveness, blending perfectly with the volumes of the body.”
Set up by Rachele Didero, who studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, and Federica Busani, the startup has created an entire line of clothing that can deceive the technology.
After nine months of study and testing, Cap-first able’s project, The Manifesto Collection, went on sale last month. It claims to mislead facial recognition algorithms by using animal-based patterns.
According to Busani, “biometric surveillance is a threat to freedom of expression, movement, and association.”
An artificial intelligence algorithm created the patterns. They feature animal-inspired shapes, dubbed “adversarial patches” by the company, to fool the software into categorizing the wearer’s body as an animal.
With the support of the Polytechnic University of Milan, the fabric was patented in 2021.
According to the company, being classified as an animal frequently prevents facial recognition software from starting to analyze, record, and store your biometric data.
Sweaters, sweatshirts, trousers, and dresses are part of the Manifesto Collection. The clothes are intended to outwit real-time surveillance footage in popular metropolitan settings. The garments are composed entirely of Egyptian cotton.
The company supports cotton-growing communities through the Better Cotton Initiative. They can be sent anywhere globally but at a high cost. This knitted hoodie is presently on sale for 420 euros, or around $450.
Surveillance technology is becoming more widely used. According to a 2016 Georgetown University research, more than half of Americans’ faces were registered in police databases – a figure sure to rise.
Cap-able told Insider that it had sold roughly 70 pieces so far, primarily in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Italy.
“The easiest markets to tackle are certainly the ones where the topics of biometric surveillance are already discussed, like the US or UK,” Busani told Insider.
The company cofounders work full-time outside of the company, but they hope to increase the startup’s income and influence by sharing their designs with other firms.
