Ad blocker for real life – Technically charming, practically useless
A developer builds an ad blocker for the real world – using AR glasses. Technically exciting, but there are clear limits in practice.
An experimental AR app superimposes advertising in real life – helpful or just a nice gimmick?
(Image: Stijn Spanhove)
A software developer from Belgium has used a clever idea and some programming skills to do what millions of people dream of every day: banish advertising from everyday life. Stijn Spanhove has built an experimental app for the Snap Spectacles – AR glasses that Snap Inc. rents out to developers – and uses them to make billboard advertising disappear in the real world. Or rather: cover them up.
The technical basis is provided by Google's generative image recognition AI Gemini and the new Depth Module API from Snap OS. The latter makes it possible to capture spatial depth in the environment and thus determine the position of recognized objects in 3D space. This combination enables Spanhove's application to identify advertising content on posters or in magazines and superimpose it with a red rectangle.
Intrusive and not quite tight
So far, so good – or at least technically interesting. Because what at first sounds like digital self-determination turns out to be visually intrusive on closer inspection. The overlaid advertising barriers are neither discreet nor completely opaque. This is due to the optical properties of transparent AR displays: the superimposed content appears semi-transparent, so that the original advertising still shines through – albeit slightly blurred. Added to this is the Spectacles' limited field of vision of just 46 degrees diagonally. This means that advertising is only superimposed when it is directly in the Spectacles' field of vision. A real Adblocker looks different.
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Spanhove himself describes his project as experimental – and it is. In a clip shared on LinkedIn, he shows the application in action. The reactions to it are largely benevolent, but not uncritical. Red rectangles are more likely to disfigure the environment than beautify it, they say. Better: the option to display personal photos that are only visible to you – a kind of augmented reality photo wallpaper for public spaces.
Other commentators also think that the ad blockers should blend in better with their surroundings, for example through blur effects or context-related images. The most charming suggestion, however, comes from user Jennie Dobro. She suggests not only suppressing the ads, but replacing them with encouraging messages – such as a nice compliment instead of a shampoo slogan. Who wouldn't want to be admired for their bright eyes from the billboard at the bus stop on a Monday morning when, in reality, they're still underlined by the jet-black rings of the weekend LAN party?
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Where does the environment end, where does advertising begin?
Technically, the challenge here is not so much in recognizing advertising – which according to Spanhove already works quite reliably with Gemini – but in designing the visual reaction. An algorithm that picks up on the colors and textures of the environment and adapts the overlaying element accordingly would be conceivable – but complex.
The discussion surrounding the project also raises the question of boundaries: Where does advertising end and the surroundings begin? Branded architecture can quickly become part of the cityscape – A stroll through Times Square or the Avenue des Champs-Élysées would hardly be possible because of all the advertising blockers. Spanhove replies that the criteria for what is considered advertising can be individually adapted – an indication of the flexibility of AI prompts, but also of the uncertainty of such definitions.
Another critical point concerns the hardware base. Snap Spectacles are a developer product, not a mass-produced item. The functions used for the project – such as depth detection – are helpful, but not optimized for everyday use. Snap itself is planning smaller AR glasses for the mass market called Specs, which are due to be released in 2026. But even their field of vision is unlikely to be sufficient to consistently hide advertising. The problem would therefore remain: If you don't look closely, you can still see everything.
The project is therefore one thing above all: food for thought. It shows that in future AR applications can be designed not only for expansion, but also for reduction – a kind of digital self-protection against visual overload. Whether it will become a marketable product is questionable. But as an artistic and technical statement, it already works surprisingly well.
(joe)
