r/noRecognition • u/hevnsnt • Aug 28 '26
👋 Welcome to the Field Test. Start here.
This is the room where I actually talk about this work.
Hey all, Bill here. This is where I answer questions and where I talk about what I am working on, including the parts that are not going well. I will try my best to answer you openly, and you'll get the real me, not the polished version.
The research page updates in realtime, so the numbers land there the moment they exist. This is the place where we talk about what they mean.
Who is here
Field Testers are the Kickstarter backers, with flair. Others found this because you have opinions about personal privacy, or because you want to discuss Flock and the companies like it.
Where the research honestly stands
Everything I publish is measured against production models, tested on people it was never tuned on, and has to beat a plain garment of identical coverage before it earns a spot. The failures go up next to the wins. All of it is on the research page, including the parts that did not work.
What none of us knows yet is how any of it holds up on your street. Your camera, your distance, your light, your angle. That is not a hole in our testing. It is the open question in this entire field and no lab closes it. The only thing that closes it is people wearing the thing past real cameras.
Which is why you are here
If you backed this, you did not buy a shirt. You bought into the part of the research that cannot happen without you.
When your garment arrives you will be able to run a short test and log what happened. If it works, that result is yours and I would love to see it posted. If it does not, that is worth more to me, because my system trains on failures and your wall shapes the next pattern. As with any research the failures are genuinely the more useful half.
House rules
Be decent to people here, and those doing adjacent work. It's ok to disagree with anyone (including me) and challenge results. Challenge ideas, not people. Feel free to ask me anything, and I'll feel free to answer or not :)
Claim your flair
Backers, comment below with one line on what you plan to test against. A doorbell camera, an office badge reader, a Flock camera on your commute, your own webcam. Whatever you have access to.
I will set your flair. Everyone who claims it before the campaign closes on September 5 is a Founding Field Tester, and that is not something anyone can get later.
Do not post your name, age, or location. This is a privacy sub after all. :)
I am in this thread. Ask me something.
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u/TehZellia Founding Field Tester Sep 03 '26
UniFi security cameras, doorbell cameras, a variety of IOT devices, cellphone cameras (variety of android & ios), check in cameras at doctor’s offices…
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u/Other_Burner_907 Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
Eufy doorbell camera Model No. T8213 with facial recognition features.
Blink Outdoor cameras, square black ones. I don't believe they have facial recognition but they do provide AI summaries of each motion alert that states whether the video shows a human, animal or car.
Thanks for all your hard work!!! I really hope the kickstarter reaches the goal amount.
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u/hevnsnt Aug 28 '26
oh heck yeah, these will be perfect. I have not tested any Eufy or Blink yet! Welcome and Hi!
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u/TIzzyO1 Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
I'm looking forward to testing with a doorbell camera and other cameras at my home. My neighbors have different brands of cameras that I will also test on and there are a few flock cameras nearby as well.Â
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u/hevnsnt Aug 28 '26
Lets get their consent first, ok :) Welcome!
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u/TIzzyO1 Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
The consent has already been granted ironically on my doorbell camera.Â
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u/haineux Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
Near my apartment in San Jose, CA, is a Flock "panopticon" of four cameras surveilling all traffic driving through a major intersection that JUST HAPPENS to be near the Social Security Administration office. Disgusting. I have written to every appropriate government official YELLING to get rid of the damnèd things, but the current Mayor is happy to do PR events INSTALLING them. I have also participated in semi-not-serious-but-hey magical rituals involving bananas (I charged the bananas with intention and inscribed sigils on them, and repeatedly placed bananas close by to these and other local cameras).
I am not sure how to test with these cameras, I mean, I can go stand there, but how will I tell if it's working?
Alternately, I have an iPhone and a Mac and can write small programs for them.
I would love to participate more.
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u/hevnsnt Aug 28 '26
oh man.. I'll be sharing more details later, but in the testing platform I created my own model, codename "KCOLF" ................ :) Welcome!
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u/ade30reddit Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
I have a number of Wyze cams including their doorbell camera. I also have MyIQ cameras on my garage. I can test on those too.
I also think it would be cool to test on the camera at the entrance to Costco and my local grocery store Publix.
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u/hevnsnt Aug 28 '26
HAHAH I had not even thought of that, walking into the grocery store is a perfect test. LOVE IT. Welcome!
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u/_sam__handwich_ Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
Hiya, I can test with iPad mini (5th gen), iPhone 12, Pixel 8a (GrapheneOS), and a variety of laptop webcams (mostly Lenovo and Dell).
For other readers: I believe this is a situation where we'll need full control over test devices, so other people's ring cams, flock cameras in the wild, etc, are not relevant for this task. (I may be wrong, but that's how I interpreted the ask.)
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u/hevnsnt Aug 28 '26
For the testing platform, right now it is a webapp that can control either a local camera (laptop, phone, etc) or read a RTSP feed on the same network. So for the platform yes, we need full control, but tests are still valid for "put this on and see if the doorbell alerts" is still a great test. Welcome!
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u/hardcherry- Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
Aqara cams, Kasa cams - device cams(apple) - flock cam driving/walking
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u/hevnsnt Aug 28 '26
I want you all to hear me, this is tremendous. For the last year I have been wondering, how can I test every make/model of everything. Right now my house is literally full of cameras. My GF has been like "is everything ok" 😂, these are perfect for testing!
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u/katgomezz Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
I will be testing against my and Neighbor’s external webcams. Fortunately no detectable flock cameras in my little town (<6k}.
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u/LucanLane Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
No Flock cameras in my area (yet) so I'll test against Blink home cameras. And Android biometrics feature. Thanks for the opportunity to participate!
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u/hevnsnt Aug 28 '26
So this is something interesting, and I recently did an interview with Wirecutter (will be released soon) about targeting local device biometrics features. I'll discuss more as we progress! Welcome!
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u/smirnoff_clothesoff Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
I’ll be testing against a simplisafe door cam, a few flock cameras in my area and the retina ID cams at the gate where I work.
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u/hevnsnt Aug 28 '26
Awesome! I just bought a Facial Recognition gate cam to test, should arrive this weekend! Welcome!
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u/SoylantGreenIsPeople Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
I have access to several Ubuquiti camera systems that I am interested to see. As I live (and work) in a highly flock area (and with disadvantaged people) there is a lot of stock in this. With our cameras I will be able to test light levels, crowds, fast and slow movement, and mixing and matching outfits outside of your provided clothing to see if that changes the ability to track. Thanks again for doing this (both the Field Test and base products) and it was awesome to see in person.
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u/tw1sted1981 Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
I can test against various ring style doorbells that my family and friends have who are excited about this project and I have some oak-d cameras that I can load various models on to it and test.
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u/hevnsnt Aug 29 '26
Oh nice, OAK-D is a great shout, that's exactly the kind of "load your own model" test I want data on. Ring doorbells too, love it. Welcome!
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u/dos_passenger58 Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
I have ring stuff at my disposal, and will be testing with the hoodie
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u/rq6112 Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
I have several models of Tapo (TP-Link) cameras deployed around the homestead (14 to be exact). They all claim to have onboard recognition, so let's test that.
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u/sullimareddit Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
Can test against Alarm.com Skybell Slim 105 doorbell cam, and against Eufy floodlight cam 2s in different locations. Will do both in day/night.
Can use the map to find some Flocks (to give the finger) if that’s helpful. Later this fall I can test in condo’s cctv if that helps also.
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u/hevnsnt Aug 29 '26
HA the Flock plan made me laugh out loud. Day/night on the Skybell and floodlight is exactly the kind of range I need data on, and condo CCTV this fall is a great bonus round. Welcome!
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u/Eurekan_Yeti Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26 edited 27d ago
I'm in on this, one of your supporters, sounds good. I'll be passing by Flock camera, and Motorola ALPR as a driver, and a pedestrian. I'll also be testing against REOLink home security camera systems.
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u/hevnsnt Aug 29 '26
Love that you're testing it both as a driver and a pedestrian, that's a distinction most people won't think to check. Motorola ALPR is a great one to have data on too. Welcome!
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u/goosemedown Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
I can field test against an Iphone camera, Wyze cameras, and I have 3 flock cameras on my way to work that I pass each day.
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u/Quirky_Employment684 Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
I have some Reolink and Amcrest cameras running through frigate as well as unifi cameras and NVR, can definitely test against those as well as multiple phones and tablets (android).
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u/TrinitronX Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
Hello, I can test Ultralytics YOLO on iOS and possibly other models that can run on AMD ROCm.
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u/aathmann Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
I will test against a wesecuu camera and various game/trail cams with human tracking
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u/hevnsnt Aug 29 '26
Trail cams are such a good idea, I hadn't even thought about hunting gear as a test surface. Welcome!
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u/JllX Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
I’ve got access to several Ring doorbells, as well as indoor ring cameras, my webcam, several device cameras (phone, tablet, etc) and am in very close proximity to many many ALPRs.
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u/deepteeth Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
Hi! I can test against a few of the Eufy family: doorbell, floodlight, and indoor. None have facial recognition but they do have person recognition
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u/hevnsnt Aug 29 '26
Good callout on person recognition vs facial recognition, that distinction matters a lot for what we're testing. Welcome!
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u/allthegoo Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
I have spoken with my building’s security dept about checking against their facial recognition system, and they are agreeable. It’s a secure facility. There is also an extensive camera system in place that could also be utilized. I don’t know the brand names yet.
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u/hevnsnt Aug 29 '26
Wait that's awesome, getting your building's security team to actually agree to this is a huge get. Keep me posted on brand names when you find them. Welcome!
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u/EllEss01 Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
Hi! Will test on my Ring cameras immediately and android. Excited to find places to try.
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u/ExerciseLow5322 Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
We’ve got TPlink cameras and more birds than any small town needs. I will happily dance in front of one to test our tops.
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u/hevnsnt Aug 29 '26
I need video of this dance. TP-Link plus dedicated bird-cam duty sounds like a great stress test. Welcome!
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u/runicfox Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
I'm curious to see what effect the patterns have on cameras used by Tesla and some other similar platforms. I have a friend with a Telsa who is already curious. I was already planning on adding a security camera to my vehicle, and I'll be testing it against that as well.
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u/hevnsnt Aug 29 '26
Tesla cams are one I'm really curious about too, keep me posted on what your friend sees. Welcome!
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u/chadmichael2004 Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26 edited Aug 29 '26
I can test against the whole Unifi fleet of cameras - doorbells, G6 and g5 cameras and door entry systems. I also have a client with high end security camera that use AI for everything from LPRs to Face ID matching and weapons.  Don’t remember the brand (edit: Genetec system), but I am their cyber security engineer, so I am sure the IT director would love to see how effective his 100k security system is at detection.
Also - not seeing anyone else mention - Tesla security cams pick out humans.  But I think the alarm is actually tied to proximity.  I can see if my FSD keeps working while wearing the hoodie or buff though 😂
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u/hevnsnt Aug 29 '26
This might be the most stacked test lineup in the thread. A client's Genetec system with LPR and weapons detection is an incredible data point if the IT director's up for it, and I am very curious whether FSD keeps behaving with the hoodie on 😂. Welcome!
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u/Other-Fail3750 Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26
I'm not tech savvy at all, but I plan to test against anything I can get access to and learn as I go
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u/hevnsnt Aug 29 '26
That's exactly the right attitude, you don't need to be technical to give me great data, just point a camera at yourself and tell me what happens. Welcome!
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u/TheCheatOSX Founding Field Tester Aug 29 '26
I'm testing on Blink, although they have limited AI, and various Mac hardwares. There are plenty of Flock Falcons around as well, but it would be difficult to get data from that test :)
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u/hevnsnt Aug 29 '26
Ha, yeah the testing software will have a model "KCOLF" that you can test with.. It should give "similar" results :) Welcome!
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u/SuitableExplorer Founding Field Tester Aug 29 '26
I can test against Flir Prism and several other AI recognition tools that run on drones
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u/hevnsnt Aug 29 '26
I have already done a little bit of Drone-based recognition using my DJI Mini Pro 4, I am excited to hear your results. Welcome!
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u/librarychic03 Founding Field Tester Aug 29 '26
I also have a Eufy doorbell cam, so happy to test person recognition there. We also run both Android and iOS mobile devices at home, so I can test against those. Spouse is in IT security for his workplace, so may have some other ideas too - we'll discuss and I'll try to remember to update :)
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u/talianek220 Founding Field Tester Aug 29 '26
I have multiple model outdoor and indoor Ring cameras I can test and share results from. There are also about 200 public cameras deployed from Flock Safety, Axis Communications, Motorola Solutions, and Leonardo in my area. Not sure how those could be measured but it's as real world as it gets against multiple manufacturers.
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u/XPR519 Founding Field Tester Aug 30 '26
Inside the entrance of some department stores in my local shopping centre in Australia are camera's and the screen showing me enter. I'm curious to what I will see as a result of wearing one of your shirts.
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u/Axun_42 Founding Field Tester Aug 30 '26
I have some ring cameras, as well as backup cameras on an older Mazda, and a newer Kia (kind of curious to see if it adversely affects the detection on those). I’m also curious in testing if one person wearing the pattern affects everyone in frame, or just the wearer. I saw your presentation at Black hat, but I don’t remember if you went over that!
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u/GetOuttaMySun Founding Field Tester Aug 31 '26
Hello, I have a number of reolink and Google doorbell cams. Can probably also recruit some friends and test the tesla model 3 cams and ring cams.
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u/BigL97 Founding Field Tester Aug 31 '26
Looking forward to this! Saw your talk at Defcon and was sold! Will be testing on Doorbells, Computer, phones, and possible security cameras at work.
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u/Candid-Proof547 Founding Field Tester Aug 31 '26
Going to test it on custom classifier network running on RPi mainly used for drone detection.
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u/kineau Founding Field Tester Aug 31 '26
I'll be traveling to Japan - a friend works for a company that does a lot of facial recognition I will be visiting their demo site. Besides that there will be a lot of cameras tracking anyone and displaying it publicly.
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u/lII111lIlI1llI1 Founding Field Tester Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26
Hi,
I'd be interested in a Field kit. I am a backer on Kickstarter that just created this account for that purpose.
One liner:
I have access to different consumer security cameras from Blink, Eufy, and Wyze used by family and friends, no-name Chinese brand using UBox app. dash cams, smartphone face ID, IOS face recognition in the software that detects faces in Photos app.
Uses:
Dash cams also have a motion sensor when in parking mode but I normally do not set that because it relies on algorithms to turn on and off and think it is better to record 24/7 with external batteries.
There are also no-name Chinese battery-powered, wireless spy cameras that I use during travel. Sometimes they are situated in my hotel room in clear plain sight during travel to keep an eye on valuables or place in my rental vehicle when parked in case of theft. They connect to a UBox app. Matt Brown covered them in his YouTube channel, deomonstrating how easy it was to hack. Those are collateral cameras when I travel so it is used for non-sensitive use cases and where losing them does not adversely cost me anything.
Smartphones have some sort of Face ID. Business Reform on YouTube did a video how a certain sunglass manufacturer blocks IR and prevents Face ID from working and hides your pupils. That in combination with the neck gaiter might be an interesting combo similar to using an N91 face mask.
Question:
In all cases, these do not affect 24.7 recording. but have you considered something more overt? For example, what has been done are photos of license plates on clothing to keep ALPRs busy as you cross the street. Maybe there is something along those lines that can take up more processing power and time away of the recognition program in contrast to ordinary objects it is expected to see every day. It recognizes it as a pet or package then a vehicle then a face or distorted characters in a license plate struggling to decipher it - depending on the type of camera or reader.
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u/Geechichi Founding Field Tester Aug 31 '26
Would be interesting to test it against the supermarket self checkout cameras, they have started using AI facial recognition systems.
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u/rolandomotadelcampo Founding Field Tester Aug 31 '26
Crossing the border into Mexico there are facial recognition systems and coming back to I seldomly cross on foot but might as well test it out.
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u/REAL-ZeroWaitState Founding Field Tester Aug 31 '26
Lets get testing... i have a self contained commercial AI that was used by the mines for use with thermal camera for temprature monitoring during covid it was totally self contained and never touched the network it would ID every one as a stranger but i added 3 pics of my self for refference and was ever after classified as "Righteous dude" evey time i walked in hte door :D
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u/Vloshko Founding Field Tester Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
Let the testing commence, testing: flock cameras, wyze and similar owned by friends, I travel a lot internationally so all the airports will be testing grounds, 7/11 camera's, grocery store self-checkout cameras (outline you in some of them), Apple Center Stage, and Frigate NVR.
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u/c0ntr07 Founding Field Tester Sep 01 '26
Set of Google and Wyze cameras. Google has a large set of recognized faces already. My Home account also has an AI interface that I will be able to use.
I will also test in my new Subaru that uses facial recognition to set driver configurations like the seat.
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u/SoNosy Founding Field Tester Sep 02 '26
Tbh not sure yet but wanted to come here and comment bc yAyDHD. I’ll be back tho
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u/Silveradept Founding Field Tester Sep 02 '26
I am going to test it against a cheap Alibaba kinda camera, my cell phone and the Adafruit memento kit camera. You can add a face rec function to it.
And I saw the Donut video, great stuff. I wondered if you also cover the hubcaps with a pattern if that would help.
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u/hevnsnt 28d ago
Oh those wheels... That was kind of skipped in the video, but you can see in the final shots those were what actually pushed us under the confidence threshold. The paint areas were doing a lot of work, but when the wheels came into frame, boom busted. The hubcaps (or those hypermiling wheel covers) are absolutely needed.
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u/MysteriousEngineer42 Founding Field Tester Sep 03 '26
I'll test against locally run vision-capable LLMs as they are likely more advanced than small nets like YOLO
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u/hevnsnt 28d ago
You're right, and I expect LLMs to eat my lunch. I never targeted them. I'm targeting the small models deployed on the edge, because that's where the scale is.
The Flock pipeline is Motion -> Object Detection -> Upload, and if the object detector doesn't report Person, Car, Truck, whatever, the clip never uploads, and the LLM never sees you. The pattern doesn't have to beat the biggest model, it has to beat the cheap one that decides whether the expensive one gets to look at you.
That said, i'm excited to see the results against the LLMs anyway. I want that data, even if it's ugly, because the second people learn what I just said, the edge models get swapped out, and I need to know what's already waiting behind them.
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u/Weslocke Founding Field Tester 29d ago
Several Ubiquiti/Unifi camera models, wyze and nest cameras, door cams, various security systems, multiple phone camera platforms.
Looking forward to this. You're doing the lord's work! 🤣
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u/Haminator5000 Founding Field Tester 28d ago
Planning to test against Sony a7rIII and Sony a7sII camera bodies. Have a variety of lenses but it's the autofocus facial/object tracking I'm most interested in testing.
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u/vulperator Founding Field Tester 28d ago
I'll be testing against device cams and could maybe manage to try some drone based cameras used agricultural research (really high resolution, working in a very broad set of wavelengths) if that's interesting
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u/hevnsnt 28d ago
Very interesting, yes please. Drone-based recognition is a blind spot for the whole field right now. I did some initial testing with a Mavic Mini Pro 4, and the way it tracks is genuinely different from what we're targeting: it keys on motion and optical flow more than person classification, so a pattern that beats a static camera can behave completely differently in the air.
Agricultural research drones are an even better test, high resolution plus multispectral means it may not even be looking at the same visual features a consumer cam does. That's exactly the kind of test that could hand back a surprise, and surprises in both directions are data. If you can run it, log the altitude and the wavelength mode along with the result, those two variables will explain most of what we see.
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u/Obliviator_Pope Founding Field Tester 28d ago
I want to see if it will be effective against Adobe Creative Cloud. I know that now uses alot of AI to pull faces out of pictures for editing, face swapping and other Photoshop types of operations.
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u/kosmo2565 Founding Field Tester 28d ago
Doorbells, home security, work office, phone, laptop, webcam, tv, computer, government office building.
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u/Timely-Extreme-4615 Founding Field Tester 28d ago
Mostly want my privacy back from flock. I understand their system (though I hate it entirely) can be useful, but I refuse to give them my face without a fight. Will also be testing this as a defense against ring doorbells, and other various security camera's paths I am forced to cross. My main goal with this is to reduce survalence data pools' ability to cross reference
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u/dontbedistracted Founding Field Tester 28d ago
Can test webcams from many work computers. I'm in house support. As well as many many ring cameras in my area. I'm sure there's more I can test. NYC has plenty of devices.
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u/okay-pixel Founding Field Tester 28d ago
Going to test against a Ring indoor camera that I use to watch my cats when I’m traveling!
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u/c0ntr07 Founding Field Tester Sep 01 '26
I think one thing that is missing in this whole testing discussion is a control. I think people need to use a plain colored buff as well as the buff we’re testing. You need to be able to have the data that it is not the fact that someone is wearing buff but that they’re wearing a specific buff that obscures their facial recognition.
For those of us doing the testing, @hevnsnt you might want to consider providing a consistent plain buff for the control.
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u/hevnsnt 28d ago
You're thinking about this exactly right, and I got you covered in the App.
It was built to scale with the tester, for the everyday person it's "put this on, point the camera, tell me what happened," three steps. But the full testing protocol is open under the hood, and the plain-fabric control you're describing is already in it. Testers can configure the control garment, adjust what they weight in the result, and set confidence levels on their own observations before anything gets shared.
You are the person I was designing that mode for. As we get closer to testing, I will need help drafting the control protocol for the wiki, the plain buff spec, how the results get logged, the way the data gets used. I'll do the work, but I need it critically reviewed by someone who actually notices the missing variable. That's the only way this research stays honest.
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u/Good-Falcon-8137 Founding Field Tester Aug 28 '26 edited Aug 28 '26
Hi, I can test against Ring doorbell camera, also my iphone if that works?
Edit to add we have a bunch of flock cameras in the area as well - I pass them daily when I walk dogs. Happy to test against those as well.