International designer, Ying Gao creates paparazzi-proof dress

Part of being a celebrity is coping with a complete lack of privacy, and stars have figured out a variety of survival strategies — Katrina Kaif writes an open letter to the media requesting them to not print her private bikini pictures because they infringe on her privacy (e ven though they were shot at a public beach!) Ranbir Kapoor flips out whenever someone puts a camera in his face. Now fashion designer Ying Gao, has come up with a way in which celebrities can ‘hide’ from the paps.

Dress becomes her
She has created a collection of conceptual outfits called Playtime that employ technology to help the celebs retain a small measure of solitude in this world. Under the diaphanous dresses techphobic threads are skeletons made of sensors, servo motors, and custom software that can tell when a camera is focused on the wearer and take evasive maneuvers to protect the wearer’s modesty.

How it works
When one attempts to capture an image of the dress, using a photo or video camera the garment transforms and fragments, it deconstructs and becomes soft and vague, unfocused. Once the software has detected the flash of a camera directed at the wearer it orchestrates a response, either causing motors to move the garment’s fabric, blurring the photo, or creating a field of light causing an overexposure. In either case presumptuous photographers are thwarted and privacy is protected. Bollywood actresses may crib, complain and cry at the paparazzi encroaching their private space and photographs being taken at inopportune moments caught at awkward poses yet they are not willing to try anything innovative to prevent the incidents from happening.