Anti-C.A.P Store
Daily Props Exploring the Impact of Smart Cameras
A series of props helping people hide real actions,
exploring the potential for daily objects to challenge authoritarian surveillance technologies.
Time
Nov - Dec 2019
Project Type
Motion Capture
Counter Surveillance
Group Project with Yuwen Lin
Skills & Tools
Unity, After Effect
Motion Capture
BRIEF
The project envisions a world that in the predictable future, there are no physical offices, classrooms, or other places of concentration, instead, people work and study remotely. To force people to focus on, governments, companies, schools and other organizations use cameras as surveillance tools and algorithms to analyze the captured movements to determine people's behavior and ensure productivity. In an atmosphere of surveillance, this project created the Anti-C.A.P(Anti-Motion Capture) Market selling products to help people look like they were working and escape from being controlled.
BACKGROUND
Motion capture is a technique for recording body movement. It is based on the camera's real picture, with the learning and training of algorithms to identify different parts of people to determine people's movement. As this algorithm become a bigger part of people's lives, we should think about our relationship with this new part. Algorithms are the monitoring tools and participating in human life in a new role -- as assistants, collaborators, even supervisors, and managers.
More and more enterprises and companies in the capital operation began to centralize. The fraction of top holders holding cumulatively 80% of the total net control ranges between 1 and 2%. In capitalists' eyes, employees are no longer fresh and individual people but mechanical tools of production to pursue efficiency. The company tries to guide, regulate, and even control employees' behavior with the rules, regulations, and corporate culture. Under such oppression, employees' need for personal release gradually forces them to evade such monitoring.
2020 UPDATE:
As the Covid-19 pandemic has forced more people to work from home, employers and schools have begun using digital surveillance technology to increase control and maintain productivity. Most of them are webcam-based surveillance. When the place of work and study is transferred from a specific place to the space of private life, the intrusion of machine vision into the privacy of life is magnified. As a result, many plug-ins and tools that try to get rid of monitoring have emerged. This project proposes a monitoring method combining motion capture technology and smart cameras, creating a secret space between the user's body and machine vision by transforming daily necessities and discussing the impact of ubiquitous monitoring on user behavior.
Freely Drinker
With the extraordinary length of the straw, beverage/wine that placed far away can be easily reached with only slight movement.
Me, Myself and I
You can see yourself in different proportions from the two mirrors, which creates a meeting/ talking/ group working scenario without others take part in.
Paid Sh*t
The additional table-board for the toilet supports your hands to a working position while enjoying the restroom time, and there is a groove for holding a phone/pad.
Magic Fork
Embedded with an auto-adjustable mechanism that can easily stretch out and drawback, this fork is designed for users to secretly eat with their hand remaining on the table.
Fake Arms
This arm-like prop allows you to hide the actual hands’ movement by pretending a keyboard typing gesture.
Anti-C.A.P Store Brochure
PROCESS & EXPERIMENTS
Misalign of Motion Capture
Cheating RADiCAL-AI
Using phone with natural behavior
Using phone with blocked arms
Motion Capture with Neuron Suit
