Most customers know the protections Reflectacles and other privacy devices offer only go so far — especially when the device is wearable, and the user doesn’t plan on wearing it 24/7.

“There’s a certain kind of utility to it,” he said. But “I don’t think we’re ever going to see mass adoption of them outside of very particular contexts.”

The easiest way to identify any film format would be to simply measure the width of the film, but let’s say you don’t have a ruler handy. How else can you identify which film format you’ve got between the two? Well, for starters, if you’ve got a box with both formats, then the fatter film is obviously going to be 16mm, since it’s literally twice the width of 8mm. Invented in 1923, 16mm film was marketed as a cheaper alternative to 35mm film, particularly for amateur film makers. While it was appreciated as a more affordable alternative to 35mm, 16mm is often referred to as sub-standard film by the industry. However, that didn’t stop two critically acclaimed movies from being filmed on the “sub-standard” format as both the cult classic, This Is Spinal Tap and the six-time, Academy Award-winning The Hurt Locker were both filmed using 16mm film.

Scott Urban's reflectacles glasses can thwart facial recognition software by reflecting or blocking the infrared light of security cameras.

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However, even if you know about all the formats, do you really know how to identify them? If your grandpa dropped a box of old film reels in front of you, could you easily point out which format was which? Chances are, probably not, and that’s okay. In fact, that’s why we’re here to help you “Know if My Film is 8mm or 16mm,” since those are the two most popular film formats around. They’re also the two film formats we can help you digitize!

A Clearview AI representative did not respond to requests for comment. Ring spokeswoman Che’von Lewis said in a statement that Ring does not use facial recognition, and that customer privacy and data security is “foundational” for the Amazon-owned company.

They block the facial recognition on iPhones, and obstruct infrared security cameras, he said. But they might not stop other types of facial recognition software.

Reflectacles products, which range from $48 clip-on lenses to $164 glasses, use different methods to block facial recognition. The base model has regular frames but the lenses themselves block infrared light, so the wearer’s eyes don’t appear on infrared security cameras.

A New York company called Clearview AI is selling facial recognition tools to law enforcement agencies around the country — including in Illinois — that allows them to tap into a database of photos scraped from social media. The Chicago Police Department uses Clearview’s software to compare photographs of suspects against public information, according to department spokeswoman Maggie Huynh.

U.S. senators have probed Clearview AI, questioning its sharing of facial recognition technology with other countries and whether it could be used for mass surveillance. And in November, Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., released findings of an investigation into Ring that revealed “little to no privacy policies or civil rights protections for video collected by the technology.”

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Reflectacles do block facial recognition in certain situations, said Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Maass, who owns two pairs of the glasses. He teaches at the University of Nevada, Reno, and uses the glasses as a demonstration in surveillance and cybersecurity lectures.

Tech giants and other companies have had to contend with the law. Earlier this year, Facebook ended a yearslong legal battle when it agreed to pay $550 million to Illinois customers to settle allegations that its facial tagging feature violated their privacy rights.

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Whether you’ve got 16mm or a version of 8mm film, the important thing to know is that we can help you preserve them through our trusted and professional digitizing service. It’s the only way to ensure that your memories stay with you for generations to come!

“I think most people are not aware of how aggressive and how powerful technology is,” said Crowley, a Portage Park resident. “When you say it, it sounds paranoid, but facial recognition software is so, so fast.”

Urban, the 38-year-old creator of Reflectacles, said wearing his glasses protects people from facial recognition technologies in public spaces.

16 mm sizein cm

The technology collects data to create a map of someone’s face. Privacy advocates worry that mass use of facial recognition software, especially in public places, could erode personal privacy and be used to track people’s movements.

If you have a collection of film reels at home, or your grandparents do, chances are extremely high that the film is standard 8mm or Super 8mm, the latter iteration of standard 8mm film.

That’s where entrepreneurs are stepping in. Designers, artists and researchers around the world have invented masks that block facial recognition technology. There are also glasses that use different tactics than Reflectacles, and even clothing with faces on the fabric meant to confuse the cameras.

Another issue: The devices typically only protect against one type of potential privacy violation, said Matthew Kugler, an associate professor at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law. Reflectacles, for example, are effective against certain cameras and facial recognition, but they wouldn’t prevent a person’s phone from being tracked.

Such is the rub with devices meant to thwart technologies: They must be more convenient than the technologies themselves.

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The technology is increasingly used by law enforcement and touted by tech companies, in part because advancements in security cameras allow them to record higher-quality images.

“How are we going to protect ourselves, protect our privacy when we leave our front door?” said Dave Maass, senior investigative researcher at the San Francisco-based digital rights nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation. “How do we ensure that as all these technologies advance, our privacy and our personal movements are also protected?”

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Whether you’ve actually watched old film reels firsthand or not, you probably at least know it comes (more like came) in several different formats –– 65mm, 75mm, 35mm, 16mm, and of course, 8mm, just to name a few.

For years, social media sites have used facial recognition technology in tagging features. Popular apps also have used it to find customers’ likeness in works of art or other images. In 2017, Apple rolled out a feature on the iPhone X that uses facial recognition to unlock the screen.

Urban declined to comment on sales figures. He makes the glasses full time, and said the business is profitable. He launched Reflectacles via Kickstarter in late 2016, and started shipping them to backers the next year. In all, 311 backers pledged more than $41,000 during that campaign.

Scott Urban, who requested his face not be photographed, with a pair of Reflectacles glasses which prevent facial recognition, at his studio on Feb. 26, 2020, in Chicago. Urban began designing them in 2015 and they became available for purchase in 2017. He has several designs and accessories.

Reflectacles, as the glasses are called, are among a growing number of devices developed to protect individual privacy as facial recognition technology becomes cheaper, faster and more commonplace.

The concerns surrounding such uses of facial recognition are multi-fold. Some worry the technology has imperfections, and its use could result in misidentification. For others, the main issue is lack of consent.

The efforts extend into other areas of data privacy as well — chunky bracelets meant to jam Amazon Echo and other devices from listening to conversations, and phone pouches that block tracking signals.

Others have material in the rims that reflect visible and infrared light. To a security camera, the wearer’s eyes become a glare.

“Everybody just doesn’t like the erosion of privacy and there’s no form of consent … it’s just being used on them,” he said. “What I’m trying to do is give people the (option to) opt out.”

The chunky, thick-framed glasses Scott Urban makes in his Humboldt Park workshop look like normal eyeglasses, but when viewed on a security camera, the wearer’s face becomes a shining orb.

Sales of Amazon’s Ring doorbell, which allows users to livestream video of the area outside their front door, are surging, creating webs of cameras in neighborhoods.

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16mm to inches fraction

Illinois has one of the strictest laws in the nation protecting biometric data, which can include data from facial, fingerprint and iris scans. The 2008 law mandates that companies collecting such information obtain prior consent from consumers, detail how they’ll use it and specify how long the information will be kept. The law also allows private citizens, rather than just governmental entities, to file lawsuits over the issue.

Brian Crowley, 41, a software product designer, said he keeps up with facial recognition technology advancements and the benefits they offer. He also worries about the problems they could cause.

As for identifying Super 8mm film, the sprocket holes were made even narrower, which allowed the frame size of the film to be larger, increasing image quality and sharpness. If your 8mm film has sound, you’ll be able to tell by the brown magnetic stripe that runs the length of the film strip on one or both sides. And if that still doesn’t determine it for you, then check out the reels themselves. Super 8mm reels will have a significantly larger center hole in the reel than standard 8mm.

Scott Urban, who requested his face not be photographed, with a pair of Reflectacles glasses which prevent facial recognition, at his studio on Feb. 26, 2020, in Chicago. Urban began designing them in 2015 and they became available for purchase in 2017. He has several designs and accessories.

It’s easy to identify 16mm film because unlike it’s 8mm counterpart, it may have sprockets on both sides of the film. If it does, then it’s 16mm and it’s a silent reel. However, 16mm film can have sound, which is best noted by the rust-colored magnetic strip running along the edge of the reel. Unlike standard 8mm film, this sound strip is on the opposite side of the holes. 16mm film was produced by a variety of manufacturers back in the day, including Kodak, Agfa, Fuji and several others. The format is still used today by some professional film makers for its raw and authentic appeal.

The Cine Kodak Eight was a camera released in 1932 by Eastman Kodak, and it was the first camera to use regular (standard) 8mm film. The best way to identify 8mm film is to take note that it only has sprocket holes on one side of the strip.

He’s also aware that tradeoffs are involved. Crowley owns a pair of Reflectacles but said he likely won’t wear them every day because they would block him from using the facial recognition feature to unlock his phone.

“People shouldn’t have to walk around with really clunky glasses or really complicated T-shirts in order to protect their privacy,” said Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Maass. “We should have policies in place that understand that democracy does require a certain amount of anonymity.”