Concept "Armor" Advises Wearer When A Surveillance Camera Is Nearby

Modern life is recorded on a million (give or take) surveillance cameras, and those who live in particularly large metropolitan locations are often under the watchful eye of cameras mounted all over the place — on buildings, street posts, inside stores. You're not likely to notice many of them, and some people don't like that idea. That's where a concept wearable called the surveillance spaulder comes in.

The Surveillance Spaulder is a concept piece by artist James Bridle, located in London, a place particularly known for its ample cameras. As its name suggests, the "armor" gets is name from the medieval plate armor spaulder, which was designed to protect a fighter from unanticipated attacks that come from above. The reasons this concept is named such is obvious, then — cameras, mounted above, are an unexpected attack.

Or so it goes. If knowledge is power, then knowing the surveillance camera is around is the first step in...whatever it is the concept armor would lead to, which isn't entirely clear. Evasion? A couple of electrode-like pads referred to as "transcutaneous electrical nerve" stimultors are placed on the wearer's shoulder blade area, then the spaulder is fixed in place over the shoulder.

An infrared sensor and a 730nm bandpass filter are the used on top of the concept wearable, as well as what appears to be the pads' accompanied cables wired to a 3.5mm jack connected to the sensor unit. When walking outside, the sensor would then detect the presence of surveillance cameras, sending an electrical impulse through the pads and into the shoulder, causing one's muscles to twitch, where twitch = camera.

SOURCE: The Atlantic