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That old razzle-dazzle
Sep. 15th, 2011 10:34 amThe purpose of camoflage has always been to break up shape and to disguise it against the background. However, back in the first world war, navies found they couldn't find an effective camoflage colouration to hide a ship against the variety of possible sea and sky shades. This meant that with advances in technology in naval rangefinding and targetting ships were often sitting ducks.
In response to this, the navy came up with Dazzle Camoflage. Rather than painting ships blue or grey to get them to blend in with the sea or sky, they were painted with bright, jumbled colours to break up their shape and confuse the eye of the beholder in order to make it harder to judge range or speed. So the war ended up with Battleships looking like this:
It's not known how effective Dazzle Camoflage was as a defense, but it was good for crew morale which the navy was well pleased with.
Anyway, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
token_limey pointed out in the replies to my post yesterday, these same principles are now being applied to humans to defeat facial recognition software on CCTV, in with people it does work. You can see some examples here: http://cvdazzle.com/
Hoodies are so popular among teenagers because they hide the face (what's that you say? We spend all day every day filming people and then act surprised they hide their faces? Well, well), but I can really see the looks demonstrated on that website catching on. Would anybody be surprised to see people who looked like that getting on the tube? I wouldn't.
In response to this, the navy came up with Dazzle Camoflage. Rather than painting ships blue or grey to get them to blend in with the sea or sky, they were painted with bright, jumbled colours to break up their shape and confuse the eye of the beholder in order to make it harder to judge range or speed. So the war ended up with Battleships looking like this:
It's not known how effective Dazzle Camoflage was as a defense, but it was good for crew morale which the navy was well pleased with.
Anyway, as
token_limey pointed out in the replies to my post yesterday, these same principles are now being applied to humans to defeat facial recognition software on CCTV, in with people it does work. You can see some examples here: http://cvdazzle.com/Hoodies are so popular among teenagers because they hide the face (what's that you say? We spend all day every day filming people and then act surprised they hide their faces? Well, well), but I can really see the looks demonstrated on that website catching on. Would anybody be surprised to see people who looked like that getting on the tube? I wouldn't.
