Anti-NIS Accessories

Today, closed-circuit video surveillance has become commonplace. Concurrent with its rise in ubiquity, new techniques are being developed for analyzing the massive amounts of information generated. Biometric identification techniques such as FRT (facial recognition technology), gait analysis, and voice analysis are often used after an incident has taken place to try to determine the identities of the parties involved. However, now various companies are working on algorithms to detect persons acting "suspiciously" (perhaps based on activities such as running, loitering and carrying packages). We are entering a new period of algorithmic guessing of intention based on external behaviors, before an incident takes place.

New forms of neuro-imaging technology are developing that may one day allow for surveillance and interception of the contents of our minds. What if brain-scanning could be periodically deployed in a widespread and stealthy manner in urban environments, similar to CCTV now? Already our notions of civil liberties and bodily privacy are being challenged on an everyday basis, how should they be defined in the future in terms of the mind?

Anti-NIS Accessories is a series of proposed objects designed as a form of clothing that maintains privacy of thought and action. The three objects are a collar which nudges the wearer with a gentle electric shock, a hat with transmits sound via bone conduction, and a mask that distracts the wearer with flashing lights. Rather than simply blocking access to the brain, which would require unsubtle and complex equipment, each piece proposes a method of momentary cognitive diversion. When a scan is detected, the accessories provoke a reaction that will demand the wearer’s attention, changing their current brain activity patterns and affording a moment of privacy through camouflage.

Can the purpose of clothing be expanded to serve a hybrid purpose: acting as an expressive covering of the body, and also maintaining privacy of things like emotions, intelligence, and even more specific “brain data”?