Anti-CCTV ‘Reflectacle’ glasses will let criminals evade the law and activists dodge ‘the surveillance state’

SPECS APPEAL 

Anti-CCTV ‘Reflectacle’ glasses will let criminals evade the law and activists dodge ‘the surveillance state’

Garish spectacles are designed to reflect light and help the wearer evade cameras

BY CHARLES WHITE

29th December 2016, 2:51 pm

Anti-CCTV ‘Reflectacle’ glasses could let criminals evade the law

AN innovative design for glasses that reflect both visible and infrared light will help budding criminals to dodge CCTV cameras.

Scott Urban, 35, has developed retro-style glasses that keep people's face hidden from cameras.

This is what happens when light is shone at the glasses

The anti-surveillance specs could allow crims to dodge CCTV cameras

Two designs, Reflectacles Ghost and Originals, bounce light back from where it comes from causing their faces to appear blurred in images.

Mr Urban says he created the design for people who are "just completely fed up with the massive surveillance state".

He claims the products are made from micro-prismatic retro-reflective materials.

Mr Urban said: "If the material were to be viewed under a microscope, one would see many very small cube-like prisms that bounce light along each edge of the prism surface and then bounce it right back in the direction the light originated from.

"The material for Reflectacles Ghost works on the same concept, but is even more intensified by having micro-corner-cubes incorporated into the material.

"This material is the most reflective material that currently exists and it is used in laboratory situations or for signal/controller applications.

Despite their abilities, the stealth specs have quite a striking appearance

"Put another way, the material is very uncommon outside of the specialized fields it is typically used in."

Certain that his designs will reflect CCTV Mr Urban began working on Reflectacles in 2014.

When testing with CCTV Mr Urban's face was "washed out" when he was wearing his specs.

He said: "I have also tested them out with Infrared flashlights and they certainly reflect infrared light as even a self-facing camera on a phone can pick up infrared light because they do not put an IR filter on that lens."

Mr Urban, from Chicago, has already crowd-sourced more than £22,800 to make the product a reality and will begin shipping to investors and customs in June 2017.

He said: "These are not cheap sunglasses. I have used my ten years experience making custom eyewear to inform the design and construction of these frames.

"They are better in terms of quality and design than any $500 frame in an optical shop.

"Doing everything myself allows me to cut out all the bull and get them down to that price.

"I am a perfectionist who takes my work seriously and I do not make garbage."

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2496686/anti-cctv-reflectacle-glasses-will-let-criminals-evade-the-law-and-activists-dodge-the-surveillance-state/