The goal was to produce a computer-generated pattern that could block the surveillance cameras lining America’s streets from detecting it. The detection algorithms that power most surveillance cameras today can sift through vast amounts of footage, allowing law enforcement to pick out activity of interest, akin to pulling a needle out of a haystack. Swearingen’s computer-generated patterns do not block surveillance cameras from recording video footage. Instead, they scramble the camera’s ability to identify objects, people, or faces so that the cameras do not trigger any detection alerts. He described how his town is swamped with surveillance cameras, sometimes located just a few feet from each other.