New System to Counter Photo and Video Devices

Incongruity writes "News.com is reporting that a team from Georgia Tech has developed and demoed a system that actively searches for and effectively blinds cameras and camcorders within a 10 meter radius." From the article: "In this system, a device bathes the region in front of it with infrared light. When an intense retroreflection indicates the presence of a digital camera lens, the device then fires a localized beam of light directly at that point. Thus, the picture gets washed out."

I can just see it now...

[TheOtherAgentM]

Paparazzi Shields for famous celebrities. It's like a force field!

What about glasses ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Can't wait to see how many people will go blind with this contraption!

A Tale.

[ackthpt]

It was the coldest winter on record and the poor little match girl found she could find no buyers for her wares and she began to shivver.

She lit a match and felt the warm glow of its meager heat before it burned down to her fingers and she dropped it in the snow. Then she lit another and another until all her matches were gone and she began to feel icy fingers of winter clutching at her tiny frail frame.

She moved along the street looking for an open door, shelter, any shelter. Then she thought, what's this? She felt a deep warmth the likes of which she had not felt since her mother's embrace. It was glorious. She sat down to rest and soon fell asleep.

And thus it came to pass, she was found roast to a golden brown, like a Thanksgiving turkey, before the offices of the Central Intelligence Agency.

NASA was way ahead on this one.

[Crixus]

Heck, didn't Alan Bean discover a way to do this in 1969 while on an Apollo 12 EVA? (he says tongue firmly in cheek).

Counter camera devices

[Anonymous Coward]

Big deal. International Rescue had them already, 30 years ago, to protect strangers from photographing the Thunderbirds.

Re:Not exactly new

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you accusing the editors of duping a story?

Ha! Take that G-Men!

[l0ungeb0y]

I'm gonna get like 10 for every room 'cause I know you're watching and trying to keep me from talking about the Alie^H^H ...mmmmpppph

[Remote Peer Quit Unexpectedly]

this is great

[drfrog]

now the police can give the beat downs without any fear of being caught

Re:I can just see it now...

[ackthpt]

Paparazzi Shields for famous celebrities. It's like a force field!

Ah, just a few years too late.

Dodi Fayed: "Paparazzi shields to maximum!"
Chauffeur: "*Hic* no problem! (gee, I'm soused, I think I can slow down and drive at a safer speed now)"
Dodi Fayed: "Now, where were we, my little princess?"

Am I Wrong?

[Snorpus]

... or wouldn't a portable one of these be a great way to take out all the cameras in, say, a bank?

There's still other details to work out, like the armed guards, the exploding ink in the money packets, etc., but I'm glad those Georgia engineers solved one of my problems.

Hopefully my cat has no glases ;)

[Mike Zilva]

What about an identical system to flood the sensor with IR light and take the shot ? ;)

Re:I can just see it now...

[tambo]

Paparazzi Shields for famous celebrities. It's like a force field!

And also, fertile grounds for the class-action lawsuit craze of 2008. At least the court reporters will have some fun transcribing "My eyes! The goggles do nothing!"

- David Stein

Re:What about

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Exactly- those are the two choices for defeating this technology. Of course, then you won't get those neat night-vision see-through-clothes pictures....

Re:overengineered

[RapmasterT]

not necessarily, if you simply ringed the area you wanted to "protect" with high output IR LED's you could wash out the photographic opportunity for no more than one quarter metric butt tons of juice by my calculations.

Re:this is great

[bugnuts]

That's okay, you can do it back. Just install this on your car to drive through red lights and avoid the photograph.

Now, we merely need to mount these on the heads of sharks and.... Muhahahhaha!

Muahahahahha!

Re:This only works if

[Fulcrum of Evil]

In waiting for your response, I will be tucked away nicely out of sight.

Yeah, that's what you think...

Re:I can just see it now...

[KiloByte]

And we don't even need the IR detector, the police is nice enough to give us their own flash. When a sudden bright light is detected, we can flash back, blinding their camera.

Re:this is great

[antic]

Most slashdotters rely on their general appearance being enough to safely blind any nearby cameras.

Shame about the smell though...

Re:I can just see it now...

[soft_guy]

For people who make a living flashing lights in people's faces to take pictures, this would be very ironic.

Re:A Tale.

[QuickFox]

perhaps the moderators need to actually READ the post before moderating?

You must be new here.

-- The price of eternal vigilance is a dollar a day and half an hour of your time.
Carefully choose a responsible newspaper. Support it, read it, write to it. Do your part.

What a great way to block all security cameras!

[amanox]

Ha :-) They realy didn't think of that, now did they ? Yeah, sure you can prevent people from taking pictures and stuff, but once installed, they render their own surveillance system useless.