Disarming Corruptor Disguises 3D Printing Files in Plain Sight

Image via Matthew Plummer-Fernandez

A London artist’s free software distorts 3D printing files into unrecognisable but visually compelling abstractions, so you can hide what you’re really designing with creative flair. “Disarming Corruptor” was built by Matthew Plummer-Fernandez, who told Motherboard the project was inspired both by his own 3D glitch artwork and current debates around internet censorship, from SOPA to the NSA.

“There seems to be more of a confrontational approach from governments and their law enforcement agencies to exert control over file sharing and censoring parts of the web,” Plummer-Fernandez said, and explained he wanted to make “not a protest device, but more a circumvention device.”

Files that have been distorted with Disarming Corruptor are hidden in plain sight. You can still see the content of the STL mesh file, but it’s buckled and twisted into a shape far from its original form. To warp the file, the user sets seven different parameters anywhere between 0-100, each of which affects the distortion a different way. To get back to the original, you just have to know the values used: These become a key code that’s easy to share with trusted recipients but pretty much impossible to guess.

A video on how to use Disarming Corruptor, via Vimeo/M Plummer-Fernandez

The first thing that springs to mind as a useful application for the technology is hiding files for suspicious objects like 3D-printed guns, but Plummer-Fernandez has been keen to focus on the broader issue of censorship rather than specific uses of the software. “I’m not pro-guns or pro-piracy, I’m just against censorship,” he said.

He pointed out another scenario in which 3D print enthusiasts might want to hide their files: to protect against potential intellectual property claims. It remains to be seen how IP rights could come into play as 3D printing becomes more popular, but from the abundance of Yoda models on sites like Thingiverse it’s clear that “fan art” is a staple of the home printing scene.

In fact, you’re probably unlikely to use Disarming Corruptor if you’ve really got something to hide—the designer concedes there are other, tougher encryption technologies for that. But the software’s artistic edge gives it different advantages. It could look less suspicious than, say, encrypting all your files and emails, and Plummer-Fernandez also suggests it might be easier to defend why you’ve got a collection of distorted files when they look like his. “It’s still an art project; the algorithm still produces these kind of algorithmic abstract art pieces,” he said. “And if someone was caught collecting these, I think it’s quite plausible that they just collected them because they find them aesthetically interesting.”