Hackers Are Trying To Make An Ad-Blocker For Real Life

Imagine a world where you didn’t have to look at ads in real life. It might sound incredible, but hackers are trying to make that a reality.

Meet “Brand Killer.” It’s an alternate reality device that blocks out ads in real time. Now, the device is definitely at an early stage—it’s more proof of concept than anything—but the idea is promising, no?

Here’s the inventors on why they want to make something like this a reality:

Corporate branding and advertisements are ubiquitous in society today and almost impossible to avoid. What if we lived in a world where consumers were blind to this surplus of corporate branding? Brand Killer is a technology demonstration that envisions a future in which consumers can use augmented reality to opt out corporate influence. We built a head mounted display which uses computer vision to recognize and block brands and logos from the user’s view in real time. It’s AdBlock for Real Life.

Sounds like the sort of thing that would exist in a cyberpunk movie. I’m looking forward to seeing if this idea takes off, and whether or not hackers can take technology like this to the next level—perhaps on devices like the Oculus Rift or something.