This ‘adversarial’ pattern can prevent surveillance cameras from detecting you
Bill Swearingen has developed a computer-generated pattern that can prevent surveillance cameras from detecting people or objects. The pattern, which is part of his noRecognition project, works by scrambling the camera's ability to identify objects, people, or faces, making it difficult for the camera to trigger detection alerts. Swearingen's goal is to provide people with a way to opt-out of being tracked by surveillance cameras, which he believes is a fundamental right to privacy.
- ▪Bill Swearingen's noRecognition project has developed a pattern that can prevent surveillance cameras from detecting people or objects.
- ▪The pattern works by scrambling the camera's ability to identify objects, people, or faces, making it difficult for the camera to trigger detection alerts.
- ▪Swearingen's project allows people to escape automatic detection and algorithmic surveillance used across the US and beyond.
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| Original publisher | TechCrunch |
| Canonical URL | https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/09/this-adversarial-pattern-can-prevent-surveillance-cameras-from-detecting-you/ |
| Publication time | Sun, 09 Aug 2026 14:00:00 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-08-09T14:00:42.138Z |
| Last seen | 2026-08-09T14:00:42.138Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
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| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | deMn0earCz-c · 1 stories |
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| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
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| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Bill Swearingen has spent the past year running largely the same test, over and over again. The goal was to produce a computer-generated pattern that could block the surveillance cameras lining America’s streets from detecting it. Some 31 million tests later, Swearingen says he can now produce patterns on-demand that, when applied to clothing and objects, prevent some of the most commonly deployed license plate readers and surveillance cameras from detecting whatever the pattern covers, from people to vehicles. His project, which he calls noRecognition, allows people to escape the automatic detection and algorithmic surveillance used across the U.S. and beyond.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at TechCrunch.
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