Researchers Develop AI Model That Creates Invisible Digital Masks for Personal Photos

There's an innovative Al model called Chameleon, developed by researchers at Georgia Tech, that creates invisible digital masks for personal photos to protect against unwanted facial recognition.

This breakthrough innovation is a significant advancement in the digital privacy , offering a robust way to protect personal identity in a world where facial recognition is becoming increasingly prevalent.

The P3-Mask

Integrating P-3 Mask technology into smartphone cameras could allow users to automatically protect their photos as they are taken. Individuals concerned about privacy can use the P-3 Mask to anonymize their images in public surveillance footage. Companies can protect employee and client photos from being misused or recognized by unauthorized systems. Brands can use the P-3 Mask to ensure that images used in campaigns do not compromise the privacy of the people featured.

This model generates a personalized privacy protection (P-3) mask for all of a user's facial photos, making them unrecognizable to facial recognition scans while preserving the image quality.

The Chameleon Al model was developed by researchers at Georgia Tech University. The team, led by Professor Ling Liu, includes Ph.D. students Sihao Hu and Tiansheng Huang, along with Ka-Ho Chow, an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong.

Chameleon creates an innovative single, personalized Personalized Privacy Protection (P-3) Mask for all of a user's facial photos, making them unrecognizable to facial recognition tools.

Unlike physical masks, the P-3 Mask is a digital layer applied to images, making it invisible to the naked eye but effective against facial recognition algorithms. The model is designed to be resource-efficient, requiring minimal processing power.

Further, Chameleon uses a perceptibility optimization technique to ensure that the visual quality of the protected photos is maintained.

A paper on Chameleon, Personalized Privacy Protection Mask Against Unauthorized Facial Recognition, was presented earlier this month at ECCV 2024.

The researchers aim to release the Chameleon code publicly on GitHub soon, allowing developers to integrate this technology into various applications.

Usage

The Chameleon AI model can be applied in various everyday applications to enhance privacy and security. Here are some potential uses:

1. Personal Privacy: Individuals can use Chameleon to protect their personal photos from unauthorized facial recognition scans, ensuring their images remain private and secure.

2. Social Media: Social media platforms can integrate Chameleon to automatically apply privacy masks to user-uploaded photos, safeguarding users' identities.

3. Smartphone Security: Mobile devices can incorporate Chameleon to provide real-time facial recognition protection, preventing unauthorized access and enhancing user privacy.

4. Public Surveillance: In public spaces, Chameleon can be used to anonymize individuals in surveillance footage, protecting their identities while still allowing for security monitoring.

5. Marketing and Advertising: Companies can use Chameleon to anonymize images used in marketing campaigns, ensuring that individuals' privacy is maintained while still showcasing products or services.

These applications demonstrate how Chameleon can be a valuable tool for protecting privacy in various aspects of daily life.

Brazil Tests the World's First Facial Recognition Shuttle Service

• Congonhas Airport debuts the Embarque + Seguro 100% Digital Boarding System with the use of simultaneous biometrics of passengers in the shuttle service between Rio de Janeiro (Santos Dumont) and São Paulo
• The technology, developed by IDEMIA, captures facial biometrics in a fraction of seconds, providing even more agility to the boarding process, avoiding queues and delays.

The Project Embarque + Seguro 100% Digital Boarding System, using the Brazilian government’s facial recognition, arrives this Tuesday (June 15) at the Congonhas Airport (SP). For the first time in the world, passengers on the air shuttle service between the capitals of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro will participate in the simultaneous testing of this end-to-end technology without the need to present neither a boarding pass nor an identification document. The Project of the Ministry of Infrastructure, developed in partnership with Serpro and the Special Secretariat of Debureaucratization, Management and Digital Government of the Ministry of Economy, has already been tested at the airports of Florianópolis (SC), Salvador (BA), Santos Dumont (RJ) and Belo Horizonte (Confins).

(Photo: Business Wire)

After the approval of the pilot project, the Federal Government will move forward with actions to effectively implement the technology in major Brazilian airports. The technology aims at making the boarding process at airports more efficient, agile, and secure. "It is the first time that tests are carried out simultaneously in two of our airports, thus establishing, in an unprecedented way, a 100% biometric air shuttle between RJ / SP, which has the fifth-largest movement in the world", highlights the executive secretary of MInfra, Marcelo Sampaio.

Throughout the day, Azul Linhas Aéreas’s passengers travelling between Congonhas and Santos Dumont airports will be invited to try the biometric facial recognition technology to access both boarding area and aircraft at both terminals. "Embarque + Seguro combines biometric validation and data analysis, ensuring an accurate, agile and secure validation of the identity of passengers, who can thus travel with more comfort and tranquility. The solution complies with the General Data Protection Law (LGPD) and is premised on security in the processing of personal data against misuse or unauthorized use", emphasizes the president of Serpro, Gileno Barreto.

For the president of Infraero, Brigadier Paes de Barros, "the air shuttle’s Embarque + Seguro unites two essential items that streamline the boarding processes, which are safety and ease for the passenger and the entire civil aviation system".

According to the Director of Public Security & Identity (PSI) of IDEMIA in Brazil, Márcio Lambert, "Facial recognition is a global trend and the Project Embarque + Seguro, jointly carried out by Minfra and Serpro, shows that Brazil is on the right track to airport digitalization. IDEMIA’s technology is applied in the most modern airports around the world, such as Changi in Singapore, and offers a high level of security for passengers, airlines, and airport operators, as its algorithm is highly accurate, reaching a extremely high authenticity rate in the identification of individuals. IDEMIA is proud to participate in this project along with Brazil’s Federal Government and to enable the world’s first 100% end-to-end digitized boarding system in an executive air shuttle service".

"The latest Global Passengers Research conducted by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) says that 70% of interviewees are willing to share their biometry for identification purposes during the boarding process. Our global expertise contributes to meeting society’s need to fly again. This innovative project developed by the Federal Government allows travelers to enjoy a quieter, safer and more comfortable boarding experience and puts Brazil at the forefront of the digital transformation movement. IDEMIA as a global leader in augmented identity has the mission to facilitate the flow of passengers by creating the possibility to interact and travel in a more connected way. To participate in the first air shuttle with an end-to-end fully digitized boarding system, in both airports, is an important milestone in our history,” explains Rodrigo Costa, PSI business development director at IDEMIA LATAM.

The MFACE technology, developed by IDEMIA, captures facial biometrics in seconds, making the boarding process even more agile, avoiding queues and delays. The solution combines the convenience and security of data validation, respecting the privacy of passengers according to the GDPR, and ensures a more hygienic process by eliminating document and paper handling, thus avoiding the risk of contamination.

"The control of IDEMIA’s biometric system follows high-quality, reliability and safety standards and offers more agility and comfort to passengers, turning the airport operational process more intelligent, the airline passenger identification more accurate, and generates the security required by the government," adds Márcio Lambert.

How it works

When checking in at the airport, the passenger of Azul Linhas Aéreas is invited to participate in the project. If the passenger agrees, then a message is sent to the cell phone informed in the application, requesting authorization to obtain the passenger’s data, including the social security number and a photo. Upon consent, the airline attendant, using the application developed by Serpro for this purpose, performs the biometric validation of the citizen, comparing the data and the photo taken on the spot with the government databases.

After validated, the passenger is released to enter the departure hall and the aircraft passing through biometric control points, whose cameras perform the passenger’s identification without the need for the user to present any document or boarding pass.

Total Security

In the pilot project, indicators such as queue time reduction, access to the departure hall and aircraft are measured, in addition to operating costs. With the tests, it is expected that airport security increases, as facial recognition allows an accurate identification of passengers.

"We are moving towards a fully secure biometric boarding at every airport in the country. In addition to the process being safe from the sanitary point of view, by eliminating the handling of papers during the pandemic, it guarantees the total protection of users' data, because the Embarque + Seguro 100% Digital Boarding System meets all the precepts of the LGPD", says Marcelo Sampaio.

Partnerships

Serpro is MInfra’s strategic partner in the country's transportation digital agenda, but Embarque + Seguro also has the collaboration of airlines and airports where the tests have been carried out, which has enabled the improvement of the project at each stage. The air shuttle pilot test is being implemented with the support of Infraero and Azul Linhas Aéreas; and the technology of facial identification stations was developed by Digicon, IDEMIA and Azul/Pacer companies.

IDEMIA, the global leader in Augmented Identity, provides a trusted environment enabling citizens and consumers alike to perform their daily critical activities (such as pay, connect and travel), in the physical as well as digital space.

Securing our identity has become mission critical in the world we live in today. By standing for Augmented Identity, an identity that ensures privacy and trust and guarantees secure, authenticated, and verifiable transactions, we reinvent the way we think, produce, use and protect one of our greatest assets – our identity – whether for individuals or for objects, whenever and wherever security matters. We provide Augmented Identity for international clients from Financial, Telecom, Identity, Public Security and IoT sectors. With close to 15,000 employees around the world, IDEMIA serves clients in 180 countries.

For more information, visit www.idemia.com / Follow @IdemiaGroup on Twitter


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