I had that thought when I heard about gait recognition too, and I'm still curious if the general counterpoint is the same as the next thought I had, or unrelated:
It seems surprisingly hard to spoof a limp (or any other biomechanic change, like randomly swapping shoe inserts or some prosthesis to change arm movement patterns or something), consistently, for an extended period. Also, painful. Also, noticeable to humans, like most MV-dodging techniques are.
An artificially induced limp is classic fieldwork from the "good ol days" of the Cold War.
What I've read of gait recognition though is that it's not so much about identifying you, as identifying someone walking "suspiciously" in a given area.
Or tracking a person where you can't see their face, based on their gait once recorded.
However, I haven't yet been able to find any papers that describe gait recognition with a subject consciously modifying their gait.
For example, when I'm stressed I tend to walk fast, but when I catch myself doing so, I will actively slow my pace down, and change the distance of my steps - like the old adage of "smiling makes you feel happy when you're not", I find deliberately slowing down my pace, and not taking such long strides, helps me calm myself - especially when combined with a focus on breathing.
What I can't find is any discussion of how existing gait analysis algorithms handle an observed subject deliberately varying their gait.
And what papers I can find on this are largely written by Chinese academics who don't find a 94% identification rate (leaving 6% false positive or negative) to be an issue, which I guess works in a totalitarian collectivist regime where an arrest on a false positive isn't considered a violation of human rights because, lol, human rights.
Which brings me, verbosely, to the academics researching this. How do they incorporate improving the surveillance capabilities of an oppressive government into their personal mores?
Do they take the stance that those doing nothing wrong have to nothing to be afraid of?
A stone or insert in your shoe would probably work (albeit painfully). I don't think people would think you were actively dodging ML if you had a limp, unlike strange face painting or haircuts.
I've been looking into anti facial-recognition make up, and I wonder how much you'd have to apply to defeat the algorithm - like, would a line of make-up breaking up the contrast pit of an eye be sufficient?
And then there's reflectacles - glasses designed to reflect IR and visible light. I presume they'd mess with an algorithm, but could you code that algorithm to recognise them and raise a flag requiring human input?
Ah man, I love how the cyberpunk dystopian future of my youth has slowly arrived, sadly with less magic and orks, and last I checked, no shady street samurai in bars looking to hire me for my leet decker skills.
Do you want to consistently change it for an extended period? You'd be better off changing it for small periods of time when you don't want to be recognized, and you can stick a stone in your shoe for that.
Deplin [0] is a patented prescription version of Vitamin B-9 aka L-Methylfolate. It's approved as an add-on treatment for when so-called antidepressants don't help with a person's symptoms. There's a genetic test that tells if a person is a poor methylator who especially needs Folate instead of folic acid.
I don't know how they decided to run the genetic test, I just heard that they did and that folate really helps her. She eventually switched to non-prescription folate (from the supplement aisle), probably mostly because of cost, or maybe some other reason.
Folate is cheap enough to experiment with: if you notice something dramatic, keep taking it.
I always noticed a pattern of 'see one, and the other is never far behind' with autism and ADHD but I never made the time (irony much) to pin studies to it. Thanks for collecting these.
You probably mean well, so as a usual lurker, I'll make an account to offer my genuine point of view in return.
I'm an artist and a programmer, the kind of 'creative' you are talking about, and see myself mirrored almost exactly in the original post. There are many things I care so much about I 'will likely always be motivated by them'. I am in love with all of these.
The problem is that same motivation likes to vanish for weeks, months, years at a time. I have no control over this. That's what ADHD does. That's why it's a disorder, not just misunderstood creativity. We ghost on our own dreams, inarticulately.
I already consider myself "blessed" to know what I like. I would just really like to be able to like it for more than one maniacal sprint at a time.
A solution to the problem of our clumsily entering and exiting a role (above the level of temp work, turking, etc) would be nice - in no small part because it seems like this would help people without ADHD too and, therefore, scale. I've been looking for a solution to this for most of my adult life. The only remotely consistent one I've found is 'long tail' type things - things one makes once and doesn't have to think about, like resources (books, writing, references), assets ('crafts', reusable design, etc).
That isn't enough to build a career off unless you get astronomically lucky - or come upon the necessary resources to delegate the less ADHD-friendly parts of this kind of business - promotion etc - to someone else.
I concur it is hard to keep continuity while battling waves of inconsistent motivation. While we hardly have the same experience with the issue, I would like to share a few additional models with you. They are not any close to a solution, but might be helpful thinking about:
I found Brain Hacking a helpful tool.
What incentives can you setup to use your own "instincts" in your favor?
"Long tail" projects are a very good call. If the required endeavor for success is big and challenging, you are likely to get drawn back to it out proud, "just to prove yourself". It might help assuming it is your responsibility to get it done. The waves will keep coming regardless, but I found that even in the dark moments, you can still advance, if just a little, and sometimes you will be surprised by finding out a time of complete aversion was exactly what you needed to step back up. I can see you are self-conscious of those moments so maybe an "OK, I am depressed. What is the least I can do while in this state of mind?" is a good exercise.
I got involved into a project that might take many years to finish and I became obsessed with it in a way the great majority of my thoughts, regardless of how messy, fall into its reign. Many might tell you to shoot for Balance instead. That sounds nice, but as an ADHD myself, I am not afraid of saying singleminded dedication to a cause is not as bad as people might tell you.
One way I found to cope with it is to apply Gamification in my routine. Every finished mission is one step less towards the vision. Another strategy I use is to go the opposite way of the norm by removing all source of information instead of feeding on them. I really mean no books, no articles, no podcasts, no HN, no YouTube, Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, etc; you name it, anything that would likely bring you anxiety. In this state of mind your mission will be canalizing your thoughts into something you find useful. Repeat.
To finish, for what it comes to career as an Engineer/Artist, I would say that following a passion, even if inconsistently, will likely be a better lesson, both technically and creatively, than any job you could find in the system. I once got two very good job offers by basically saying "I am too adventurous. I won't ever fit your archaic corporative structure. Are you sure you want me in?". That said, nothing really beats the thrill of being a maker. Have you ever lurked into Systems Design?
It seems surprisingly hard to spoof a limp (or any other biomechanic change, like randomly swapping shoe inserts or some prosthesis to change arm movement patterns or something), consistently, for an extended period. Also, painful. Also, noticeable to humans, like most MV-dodging techniques are.