Hacktivist/tech artist Jeff Crouse is developing a digital filter that automatically masks corporate logos in recorded video. I’d imagine that it won’t be too long before this can be done in real-time for mobile augmented reality applications! Crouse set up a Kickstarter project to fund his next phase of development. From the project page:
Unlogo is a web service that eliminates logos and other corporate signage from videos. On a practical level, it takes back your personal media from the corporations and advertisers. On a technical level, it is a really cool combination of some brand new OpenCV and FFMPEG functionality. On a poetic level, it is a tool for focusing on what is important in the record of your life rather than the ubiquitous messages that advertisers want you to focus on.
In short, Unlogo gives people the opportunity to opt out of having corporate messages permanently imprinted into the photographic record of their lives.It’s simple: you upload a video, and after your video is processed, you get an email with a link to the unlogofied version (example: http://vimeo.com/14531292). You can choose to have the logos simply blocked out with a solid color or replaced with other images, such as the disembodied head of the CEO of the company. This scheme is a bit ridiculous (which is kind of my style), but I like it because it literalizes the intrusion into the record of your life that these logos represent.
“Unlogo, the Corporate Identity Media Filter by Jeffrey Crouse” (via Submitterator, thanks Darran Edmundson!)