# A shirt invisible to surveillance cameras ![[images/A-shirt-invisible-to-surveillance-cameras.webp]] **Creator:** Jake Vs The State ([@jakevsthestate](https://www.youtube.com/@jakevsthestate)) · **Published:** 2026-09-05 · **Length:** 1:19 (YouTube Short) · [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2-GR3TUhNM4) > Caption source: YouTube's **auto-generated English captions** (en-orig), downloaded with **yt-dlp** on the first try. The translated "en" track returned HTTP 429, but en-orig is the original track, so nothing is missing. No TubeAlfred credits were used. The video has no description and no chapters, so the outline follows the narration. Screenshots come from the 1080×1920 stream. > Format: a split-screen reaction Short. Clips of Simon Weckert's project (detector footage, an interview, his testing laptop) play on top, with the narrator at his desk mic below. ## Outline ### 0:00 The shirt - [0:00](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2-GR3TUhNM4?t=0) A Berlin-based artist created a shirt designed to confuse **AI-powered surveillance cameras**, so computer vision systems can't recognize the person wearing it. ![[images/A-shirt-invisible-to-surveillance-cameras-t0001.webp]] *Overhead detector footage: people get green "person" boxes, while the shirt-wearer (red arrow) gets none. The narrator is below.* ![[images/A-shirt-invisible-to-surveillance-cameras-t0009.webp]] *At an event, the person in the patterned shirt (red arrow) goes undetected* - [0:12](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2-GR3TUhNM4?t=12) He calls it **digital camouflage**. ![[images/A-shirt-invisible-to-surveillance-cameras-t0013.webp]] *Label on the garment: "DIGITAL CAMOUFLAGE by SIMON WECKERT"* ### 0:14 Adversarial fashion (interview clip) - [0:14](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2-GR3TUhNM4?t=14) In an interview clip, apparently Weckert himself, the idea is framed as part of a move toward **adversarial fashion** (the captions read "adversary fashion"). He compares it to cars painted to be invisible to a certain kind of camera (the captions read "flood camera"; the exact word is unclear). ![[images/A-shirt-invisible-to-surveillance-cameras-t0017.webp]] *Interview clip with the lower third "Simon Weckert"* ### 0:24 How it was made: testing against YOLO - [0:24](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2-GR3TUhNM4?t=24) The unusual pattern isn't designed to look cool. **Simon Weckert** developed it through repeated testing against **YOLO**, open-source AI object-detection software. - [0:33](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2-GR3TUhNM4?t=33) With every iteration he adjusted the pattern to reduce the AI's confidence in identifying the wearer as a person. ![[images/A-shirt-invisible-to-surveillance-cameras-t0029.webp]] *Pattern iterations on his laptop: fruit-like blobs and grids of small figures* ![[images/A-shirt-invisible-to-surveillance-cameras-t0033.webp]] *Street-crossing footage with detector boxes on pedestrians and cyclists* ### 0:41 Invisible to the tracker - [0:41](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2-GR3TUhNM4?t=41) Effectively, to the cameras, "you're nothing." The system doesn't identify the wearer as a person, so it doesn't track them at all, and they fade into the background. ![[images/A-shirt-invisible-to-surveillance-cameras-t0049.webp]] *Visual metaphor: a tiger camouflaged in grass* ![[images/A-shirt-invisible-to-surveillance-cameras-t0053.webp]] *On the street, people around him are boxed, but the shirt-wearer is not* ### 0:49 Why Berlin - [0:49](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2-GR3TUhNM4?t=49) Simon started the project as Berlin prepared to introduce an **AI-assisted video surveillance system**, in which cameras analyze footage and flag specific types of behavior deemed suspicious. ![[images/A-shirt-invisible-to-surveillance-cameras-t0061.webp]] *Example of behavior-flagging AI: a shopper's pose skeleton tagged "Suspicious"* ### 1:01 The Google Maps hack - [1:01](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2-GR3TUhNM4?t=61) He's the same artist who in **2020** dragged **99 smartphones** through an empty Berlin street, tricking **Google Maps** into showing a traffic jam. The narrator says this proved Google was tracking "your every movement." ![[images/A-shirt-invisible-to-surveillance-cameras-t0069.webp]] *The red handcart of smartphones and the Google Maps view, beside the shirt-wearer* - [1:17](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2-GR3TUhNM4?t=77) "Absolute legend. What do you guys think?" ## Key takeaways - **Adversarial patterns** can defeat person detectors: Weckert tuned his shirt against YOLO until its "person" confidence dropped. - If a detector doesn't classify you as a person, downstream tracking never starts. - The project responds directly to Berlin's planned AI-assisted, behavior-flagging video surveillance. ## Things mentioned | Item | Detail | |---|---| | Digital Camouflage | Weckert's anti-detection shirt (label shown on screen) | | Adversarial fashion | Clothing designed to fool machine-vision systems | | YOLO ("You Only Look Once") | Open-source real-time object detector used as the test target | | Berlin AI video surveillance | Planned system that flags behavior deemed suspicious | | Google Maps Hacks (2020) | 99 smartphones in a handcart created a fake traffic jam on Google Maps | ## People - **Simon Weckert**: a Berlin-based artist whose work deals with technology, data and surveillance. He made the Digital Camouflage shirt and, in 2020, the "Google Maps Hacks" performance, where he pulled a handcart of 99 phones to create a virtual traffic jam. - **Narrator (Jake Vs The State)**: the channel host, who reacts on camera. The channel had about 60,700 subscribers when this note was written. It gives no full name. ## Caveats - The narrator's claim that the Google Maps stunt "proved Google was tracking your every movement" is his framing. Strictly, the stunt showed that Google Maps infers traffic from the location data phones report. - The video doesn't say whether Berlin's surveillance system has actually launched, or give its timeline.