---
title: "This Ingenious Hat Blocks Facial Recognition"
description: "A Redditor designed a hat to thwart facial recognition by literally putting on a picture of Chinese President XI Jinping's face which blocks their face."
date: "2019-11-07"
modified: "2019-11-07"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/hat-blocks-facial-recognition"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
  - "Facial recognition"
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "facial recognition"
  - "hong kong"
  - "surveillance"
  - "the digest"
---

# This Ingenious Hat Blocks Facial Recognition

![A Redditor designed a hat to thwart facial recognition by literally putting on a picture of Chinese President XI Jinping's face which blocks their face.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/hat-blocks-facial-recognition.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: blondofblargh/Reddit\</em\>*

## Yo Dawg

Protestors and police in Hong Kong have found themselves in an escalating arms race of high tech surveillance.

While the protestors [have used lasers](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/hong-kong-protesters-lasers-facial-recognition>) to disable the facial recognition-equipped surveillance cameras, police have taken to [spraying them with dye](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/hong-kong-dye-spraying-protesters>) so they can be identified and arrested up later on.

Now, one Redditor is showing off a [prototype of a hat](<https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/dsbmjh/inspired_by_the_protests_i_made_a_cap_that_blocks/>) that he says can block facial recognition surveillance with a low-tech trick: the cap unfurls to cover up the wearer's face with an image of another face, a groundbreaking development otherwise known as "wearing a mask."

## Halloween Clearance Sale

It's admittedly a nice touch to make the hat unfurl into an image of Xi Jinping, China's current president, who [banned Winnie the Pooh](<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/07/china-bans-winnie-the-pooh-film-to-stop-comparisons-to-president-xi>) from the country after people compared him to the cartoon bear.

But since Hong Kong has already [made it illegal](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/hong-kong-bans-face-masks>) to wear "facial covering that is likely to prevent identification" during public protests, the hat isn't likely to do much good at this point — just wearing it could be grounds for arrest.

At the very least, it could help people finally perfect their Jinping cosplay.

**READ MORE:** [Inspired by the protests, I made a cap that blocks facial recognition when used. Plans are available for free to anyone that wants to use them](<https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/dsbmjh/inspired_by_the_protests_i_made_a_cap_that_blocks/>) \[Reddit\]

**More on surveillance:** *[This Filter Makes Your Photos Indecipherable to Facial Recognition Software](<https://futurism.com/filter-photos-facial-recognition-software>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)