Chinese students invent 'invisibility cloak' that can evade security cameras

Chinese graduate students have reportedly invented an "invisible cloak" that can hide the human body, day or night, from security cameras monitored by artificial intelligence (AI). 

Their invention, called the 'InvisDefense coat', can be seen through human eyes, but is covered in a pattern that can blind cameras in the daytime and has heat-generating elements to fool infrared cameras at night, said a report in the South China Morning Post.

Professor Wang Zheng of the school of computer science at Wuhan University oversaw the project.

InvisDefense has a specially designed camouflage pattern on its surface that can interfere with the recognition algorithm of machine vision, thus blinding the camera which cannot recognise the wearer as human. 

A surveillance camera basically detects human bodies through their movement and contour recognition.

During the nighttime, the InvisDefense coat creates an unusual temperature pattern that confuses the camera, which generally tracks human bodies through infrared thermal imaging.