Plateshapez – Tool for Generating Adversarially Perturbed License Plate Overlays

Posted4 months agoActive4 months ago

Rhea_Karty

32 points

18 comments

github.comTechstory

controversialmixed

Debate

80/100

Adversarial Machine LearningLicense Plate DetectionSurveillance

Key topics

Adversarial Machine Learning

License Plate Detection

Surveillance

A tool for generating adversarially perturbed license plate overlays was shared on GitHub, sparking a discussion about its potential misuse and implications for law enforcement and surveillance.

Snapshot generated from the HN discussion

Discussion Activity

Light discussion

First comment

Peak period

4-5h

Avg / period

1.8

Comment distribution18 data points

Loading chart...

Based on 18 loaded comments

Key moments

01Story posted
Sep 5, 2025 at 10:08 PM EDT
4 months ago
Step 01
02First comment
Sep 5, 2025 at 10:12 PM EDT
4m after posting
Step 02
03Peak activity
4 comments in 4-5h
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03
04Latest activity
Sep 6, 2025 at 10:20 AM EDT
4 months ago
Step 04

Generating AI Summary...

Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns

Discussion (18 comments)

Showing 18 comments

Rhea_KartyAuthor

4 months ago

1 reply

Background: from this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp9MwZkHiMQ)

Floxk AI is a startup that apparently runs highly suspicious police data collection services. As a fun bonus, it sells this data to private bidders and retains no liability for any mess-ups.

Apparently, it uses a Bluetooth system to relay some of this information. And seems to generally have awful security...

Any thoughts? Or further projects on this?

toomuchtodo

4 months ago

1 reply

Flock Safety

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

Rhea_KartyAuthor

4 months ago

1 reply

A lot of news... not too much technical.

The real scandal seems to be the use of data brokers' data, re-selling/owning the data collected from publicly funded cameras, and also using bluetooth and ostensibly other outdated security.

toomuchtodo

4 months ago

The scandals you mention have been reported on in depth by 404media, which has led to state and congressional investigation. A Google search will provide technical details about their cameras and the Android/hardware stack that operates them.

theamk

4 months ago

3 replies

for such a well-documented repo, the complete lack of sample outputs is surprising.

I don't want to run the code, just show me some perturbed plates!

ChrisArchitect

4 months ago

1 reply

Aside: this is the third or fourth time this week I've seen a repo/project shared here with some visual output component and no examples shown in the Readme or anywhere and multiple people asking about it. What's with these maintainers missing that key aspect? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

on_the_train

4 months ago

Might actually be interaction bait. Just like those Reddit posts with false info or typos. Gets people to interact, just like us

lantry

4 months ago

1 reply

I watched the video, and I think the creator of the repo might be concerned about liability. Also, the perturbed plates don't look that interesting, they just look slightly dirty

LargoLasskhyfv

4 months ago

Next level: Produce solution for actually dirtying a given plate whith patterns of applied "dirt", easily removable, just in case...

nxpnsv

4 months ago

I guess benn jordan assumed you would watch the video on yt before finding the repo

radar1310

4 months ago

2 replies

Highly illegal in most likely all states.Every state has laws against obstruction of license plates.

spicybright

4 months ago

2 replies

If you see the video, the initial iteration just looks like specs of mud on the plate with the letters+numbers still fully readable. His ultimate goal is a custom plate frame that looks normal to the human eye but can block camera readings.

I can see this as being legal because it's still human readable.

Plate readers aren't expected to be 100% reliable as is (angles, lighting, network goes down, etc.) Plates get dirty, sometimes rusty. Also you can't test your own plate for machine readability against all the different types of systems cops use, so how could you reasonably know the issue is on your end and how to fix it?

Turlututu

4 months ago

My guess is that either the system flag you as plate-less and warn cops about it.

Or trigger a human read of licence plate capture.

vintermann

4 months ago

Well, you know the issue is on your end if you specifically installed a system which is designed to foil a specific type of license plate reader.

hackable_sand

4 months ago

Don't get caught I guess

xnx

4 months ago

1 reply

Post COVID, where the streets are full of terrible/reckless/dangerous/uninsured drivers with missing or fake (ghost) tags, I have a hard time opposing license plate enforcement.

01HNNWZ0MV43FF

4 months ago

Stop stalking me

rickytheguy

4 months ago

I've been wondering for a long time about adding a layer of UV reflective material to a license plate (maybe even a spray?), built specifically to either alter the image so a camera sees different numbers/letters, or to block it altogether. With this it wouldn't be obstructing the licence plate at all for human eyes, so it's feasible that you could easily get away with it.

View full discussion on Hacker News

ID: 45145965Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 4:38:28 PM

Want the full context?

Jump to the original sources

Read the primary article or dive into the live Hacker News thread when you're ready.

Open link View on HN