Sam Webb
Daily Mail
December 15, 2013
An artist has designed a wearable piece of equipment that detects when the user is being watched by a CCTV camera and sends an electrical signal to let them know.
London-based artist James Bridle featured the design on his blog booktwo and took for his inspiration the spaulder, a component of medieval plate armour that protected warriors from unexpected attacks from above.
The spaulder contains a CCTV detector, based on a design by an anonymous security researcher known as Puking Monkey. The detector filters the light it collects through a filter to isolate the infrared lighting used in most CCTV cameras.
When it receives a signal, it passes electric current through a pair of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) pads – more commonly used in physical therapy – attached to the wearer’s shoulder, causing a slight muscle spasm.
He wrote: ‘The Surveillance Spaulder continues this tradition into the present day – and the electromagnetic spectrum – alerting the wearer to the violence of ubiquitous surveillance.