Fall's Hot New Look: Antisurveillance "Dazzle" Camouflage

Camouflage takes many forms, some in plain sight, some you've maybe never even spotted (by design.)  In today's world of ever-encroaching surveillance, one can't be too careful around cameras, both overt and hidden.  If you're trying to keep your face out of the electronic archives, one way to dodge the documentation is to use some good old-fashioned dazzle camouflage. 

In WWI, battleships were painted like hipsters (shipsters?) to confuse enemies.

Based on the premise of actual military warpaint used on planes and boats, CV Dazzle is a new means to break lines of vision while simultaneously breaking your monotonous old look.  According to the CV Dazzle website, "Since facial-recognition algorithms rely on the identification and spatial relationship of key facial features, like symmetry and tonal contours, one can block detection by creating an “anti-face."  Avant-garde, Surrealist, and cubist designs all contribute to the various elements of CV Dazzle.  

Arts AND sciences!
(Image courtesy cvdazzle.com.)

Some ideas for your new radar-revolting look could include:

-Long, facially-obscuring bangs in a variety of lengths and colors

-Facepaint including large "pixel"-style blocks 

-makeup that contrasts with your skin tone and doesn't enhance specific features

-obscuring the nose bridge (a key indicator in facial recognition software)

-obscuring the size and shape of the head

-covering or altering the perceived appearance of the eyes (size, shape, color)

-developing an overall asymmetrical facial presentation

The CV website offers styling templates and a host of look ideas to ponder, if you need to take your anti-surveillance look to the next level.  Would a mask also work?  Sure, but you might look cooler with blue bangs.

Of course, if you're not inclined to wear facepaint or weird bangs, you can always just anonymize your face in photos with the Face Dazzler app.  It'll take you right out the running for all the "tags" you don't need to be found in.  Privacy never looked so pretty!

Dazzle camouflage still works in modern times, as shown by this Dazzle-inspired yacht painted by Jeff Koons.  Yes, that is a real boat.