Image: Screenshot of Veil stereoscopic view with realtime facial recognition!
Problem: The opportunity to make commentary art out of the vast surveillance apparatus that engulfs us is enormous. The Veil project starts with a cornerstone of the modern surveillance stack — facial recognition — and sticks it in, well, your face.
Approach: Have you ever picked up your phone to take a picture and it is in selfie mode? The horror and awkwardness of seeing your own face staring back at you. Now imagine if this thing was projected on someone elses body… without your approval! Since I am using the Pixel 7 Pro (in the interim) as an MR display, I’ve got a powerful Android 14 compute device. It has built-in facial recognition support via ML Kit so its another good choice for prototyping.
Challenge: Just as above, this is all Google stuff on a highly-trackable mobile device. Ideally, I can get off this platform before completing this project!
Commentary: Early experiments with ML Kit are VERY positive. It’s fast, accurate and tunable.