The world is fast changing for superheroes, and the comic
book industry and Superhero motion picture plotlines have yet to acknowledge it properly. It is simply this:
The concept of a “Secret Identity” is in
grave danger of becoming obsolete.
In the real world, we are now in a time where almost every
major street corner or storefront has some kind of video monitoring, as well as
private individuals posting images of themselves and everyone around them on
the internet. Even if you don’t post
photos of yourself, there is still an almost certain chance that there is a
photo of you somewhere on the internet and/or in a government database.
Facial Recognition technology is being used not only by the
government, but in the private sector by companies such as airports, stadiums,
and even NASCAR. Facebook has used it to “Tag”
and match up images of people—even if the person in the photo does not have a
Facebook account. Also, while it is primarily
used to compare facial features, similar technology that will recognize an unusual walking
stride (such as a slight limp) or another body movement (e.g., facial twitch or another
nervous habit) is expected to be commonplace in the near future.
Currently, Facial Recognition (FR) technology is able to
recognize a person, whether or not they are wearing glasses, a false beard, a
different hair color, or any number of classic Secret Identity tricks. One article on FR tech makes it plainly clear that “Artificial
mustaches, fake wigs or mustaches will not work, because they do not change the
distances between points on the face.” [http://www.worldthinktank.net/pdfs/FacialRecognitionCountermeasures.pdf] Any tricks that might be used to change
these vital measurement points are detectable by the technology, which can use
heat signatures and other methods to determine that a non-organic and unnatural
object is on the face. For example, fake
eyebrows or a false nose would change the measurement points, BUT these alterations show a different heat signature than the person’s skin, so the technology knows
to ignore them and go with the real measurements instead.
Even Batman’s cowl could prove ineffective defense
against more advanced FR tech. While it might fool the simpler FR software, in that the partial mask would negate their ability to recognize the presence of any face at all, many FR programs need
only a portion of a person’s face before they can make a match. At this point in the technology, many programs need
just about half of a face, and some of the contemporary versions of Batman portray him showing the bottom half of his face.
What chance, then, does Superman have of keeping his real
identity a secret from the U.S.
government or some bad guy’s technological genius, if all he does is throw on a
pair of glasses and change into blue jeans?
Realistically, ZERO.
By taking the public photos of Superman and trying to match
them to others in a database, the government (or Lex Luthor) only has to run
his face through Facial Recognition technology in order to find it matches the
Driver’s License photo of Clark Kent— or the photo from his Daily Planet Press
Pass, or the photos Jimmy Olsen takes of Clark Kent & others around the
Planet’s offices that Jimmy uploads to "The Cloud," etc.
Expert hackers, like DC’s "Oracle" or Marvel's "Cypher", would be able to hack into one or two of the FR software programs that are
being used and "convince" the programs to "ignore" Superhero-Secret Identity matches, but there are too many platforms out there and too many different
programs being used. Even some possible
Superhero Helper, working 24/7 at hacking and keeping the computers from
matching Secret Identities to Superhero Identities, would be unable to keep up
with all of them, especially since there are so many in development and so many databases around the world to alter.
Batman (or someone equally tech-savvy) might have some
anti-facial-recognition trick or technology of their own. Currently, nose plugs can change the shape of
the nose enough to confuse the FR tech.
The simple act of chewing tobacco or wearing “Dracula-Teeth”
(the kind that children play with) can change the jaw line enough to confound the FR tech,
since this will change the measurement points for the jaw area. Certainly Batman would be careful to keep
either his Bruce Wayne jaw line or his Batman jaw line distinct by some trick,
just as Christian Bale’s Batman made his voice unrecognizable from Bruce
Wayne’s by making it more growling and gravelly. (Batman is,
after all, known to be a master of theatrical performance, like his famous fictional
predecessor, Sherlock Holmes, so we can expect some amazing FR-foiling theatrical trickery from him.)
It is important to note, however, that these kinds of tricks are not
expected to work much farther into the future, as the technology improves.
There IS a product that has been developed to counter facial
recognition. It is a set of glasses that
a person can wear, resembling workman's goggles, which create a sort of “white noise” for cameras. They emit beams of LED light that are
invisible to the human eye but bright to electronic camera sensors. The glasses have 12 beams aimed in the
directions from which any FR cameras might be trying to scan. One drawback is that anyone looking at any
electronic photos will know that the wearer had these glasses on. Another is that the tech
is currently bulky and the LED emitters are obvious, so wearing them discretely
is not possible at this point – Clark Kent could not integrate these emitters
into his current spectacles, for example, without everyone wondering what the
heck he was wearing on his face.
So what does all of this mean for Comic Books and the Superhero genre at
large?
At some point in the future, Clark Kent will have
to take off his glasses. He might start
using some Kryptonian technology to change his appearance (similar to the way he recently began using Kryptonian tech to explain his instantaneous costume changes), or he might have to give up
having a Secret Identity altogether.
Until then, we will continue to believe that a man can fly, all the while spending
his days fooling his Investigative Reporter girlfriend— and the rest of the
world— by nothing more than putting on a pair of Ray-Bans.
RECOMMENDED LINKS:
www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/anti-glass-specs-developed-to-block-face-recognition-technology/#!3NW4e
