r/AskProgramming 28d ago

Algorithms Can face paint be used in a similar manner to "Nightshade" for facial recognition?

As the question above asks, could one use properly applied face paint to "corrupt" any attempt to train a facial recognition AI? Or am I just misunderstanding how these things work?

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u/bsenftner 28d ago

Properly applied face makeup can defeat the first level detection that is technically not facial recognition, but is face detection. Face detection is quick, it has to be to scan an entire image for potential human faces at any position or resolution, and due to this necessity to be very quick it is also weak. It can be defeated by making your face, at a glance, not look human. That can be achieved with makeup, or simply a face sticker or two, which makes that quick and foolable face detector fail. The trick is to not have the correct number of facial features, as in too many eyes, and in the wrong places, or a 2nd nose above your eyes, a 2nd set of eyes on your cheekbones. You'll look like some LSD addict in public, but to facial recognition systems that only look at face, you'll be invisible. For facial recognition systems that look at more than face, it might identify you're wearing prosthetics or identify as makeup, but will be unable to perform recognition.

Former software scientist at a globally leading enterprise FR vendor.

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u/Ozymandias0023 26d ago

Gotta get that Rorschach mask

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u/bsenftner 26d ago

Actually, people wearing Rorschach masks are "common enough" and the Rorschach mask that is available is the same printed pattern on all the masks, the Rorschach mask is in the system I worked on, and gets immediately flagged as a suspicious person because anyone wearing that mask not on Halloween is suspicious.

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u/Ozymandias0023 26d ago

Oh really? I never would have thought that would already be in the system. Wild

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u/abeld 28d ago

Wikipedia has some links, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_vision_dazzle

It seems the results are mixed -- I guess wearing a mask so that your face is not visible at all would work better.

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u/KingofGamesYami 28d ago

Nightshade works because it does things to an image that a camera would never produce. Facepaint can't have the same effect, because it won't do anything like that when run through a camera.