Culture
A Better Way to Camouflage Eyesores
Researchers are developing algorithms that can generate "invisibility cloaks" for ugly objects like utility boxes.
Disguising eyesores like sidewalk utility boxes isn't usually a big priority for city governments. The work—if it's done at all—has sometimes fallen to enterprising local artists. Recently, however, computer scientists are working on a more high-tech approach.
Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and a few collaborating institutions have developed an algorithm that can automatically generate camouflage coverings to hide physical objects. The algorithm essentially takes in a set of photos capturing multiple perspectives of a scene, analyzes them, and outputs a surface pattern that can camouflage an object placed in that setting.