MagicCloth: Protect User Privacy in AR Streaming

With the growing number of users, Augmented Reality (AR) privacy issues have aroused researchers' concerns. Our work focuses on the protection of privacy-sensitive objects in indoor settings. We proposed a novel privacy protection mechanism MagicCloth for AR live streaming. When the user covers the privacy-sensitive object with a specially designed cloth, MagicCloth can accurately track it in real time, and replace it with a virtual object based on its shape and size seamlessly. By wisely integrating lightweight 0-1 segmentation, pattern detection, and AR plane tracking techniques, our MagicCloth system achieves real-time performance on Android smartphones.

This paper introduces a practical way to hide private objects during AR live streams: users simply drape a special cloth over items they want concealed, and the system automatically replaces them with virtual stand-ins in real time. The approach runs efficiently on everyday Android phones, making AR privacy protection accessible without expensive hardware.