The story of PRIVACY VISOR

Isao Echizen, a professor in the Department of Content Science at the National Institute of Informatics (NII, Director: Masaru Kitsuregawa, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo), and his colleagues have developed a new piece of equipment: the PRIVACY VISOR, which prevents unauthorized access to facial information by surveillance cameras and other devices. The mission of NII is to apply and develop informatics research in the field to solve social problems. The current invasion of privacy is indeed a more serious social problem.

PRIVACYVISOR is a pair of glasses that protects the privacy of the wearer by disabling facial recognition from cameras and other devices. The commercialization of PRIVACYVISOR is part of the National Institute of Information Technology’s commitment to apply the results of research in the field of informatics to solve social problems and social implementation. The commercialization of PRIVACY VISOR will also contribute to the development of local industries through technical cooperation with companies based in the region.

PRIVACY VISOR Application Social Background

With the popularity of camera phones, users can easily take pictures as well as record the date, time and location of their activities. With the development of social networking services (SNS), people can post pictures of them in their daily lives. Advances in face recognition and image retrieval technology are making new types of privacy violations a social problem. This is due to the development of technology that makes it possible for a person’s personal information to be revealed to a large number of people.

Security surveillance is a standard element of everyday life in the West. In the UK alone, there is at least one surveillance camera for every 11 citizens, and it is easy to encounter them in numerous public places such as streets and stores. With poorly regulated laws, the aspect of individuals being tracked in this way is uninformed and powerless.

For this reason, there is a need for methods that can prevent face recognition in order to protect privacy. This has led to research on how to prevent face recognition in order to protect privacy. Traditional techniques to prevent face recognition include applying makeup to the face or physically hiding the face to prevent detection of the face position, which is a precursor to face recognition. The main drawback of these techniques is that they interfere with normal human communication.
Now, Japanese researchers say privacy-conscious wearable technology can also be used to prevent facial recognition technology from recording your physical presence.

PRIVACY VISOR Benefits

PRIVACY VISOR is worn like a pair of glasses, without interfering with the wearer’s vision or communication. Doing this is done by attaching a material to the mask that reflects and absorbs the visible light that forms on the face, without affecting the wearer’s vision and communication, researchers have established a way to eliminate bright and dark features around the eyes and hinder facial detection. The “PRIVACY VISOR” with light-reflecting and absorbing materials

The “PRIVACY VISOR” with light-reflecting/absorbing materials does not require electronics or special materials and can be installed inexpensively. PRIVACY VISOR” made of light-reflecting and light-absorbing materials can be inexpensively installed without electronics or special materials.
Commercialization of “PRIVACY VISOR” prevents face recognition.

Disadvantages of PRIVACY VISOR

Japan’s National Institute for Information Research (NII) released its first “privacy visor” prototype in 2013. The eyewear uses a near-infrared light source through 11 infrared LEDs placed around the eyes and nose. The human cannot see the infrared light, but the light will strongly interfere with the imaging when the lens is shot using infrared light, PRIVACY VISOR, but this version of PRIVACY VISOR does not prevent the recognition of the face by visible light. And it needs to be equipped with a power supply, etc. It is not convenient to wear and use.

Japanese researchers developed a new PRIVACY VISOR by using light-reflecting materials to improve the original version of the problem, without electronic components or special materials to achieve cheap PRIVACY VISOR. affect your eyesight? Will it make you a noticeable guy on the street? It does not block UV protection glasses, do you need to bring another pair of sunglasses? Two stacked glasses on the bridge of your nose don’t seem comfortable.

PRIVACY VISOR comfort and practicality challenge its ability to become popular.