Crave privacy? New tech knocks out digital cameras - CNet - 9-19-05

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Josh Duberman <pivotalinfo () usa net>
Date: September 19, 2005 9:02:59 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Crave privacy? New tech knocks out digital cameras - CNet -  
9-19-05
Reply-To: pivotalinfo () usa net


Hi Dave - For IP, if you like - extract below, the entire article is at
http://news.com.com/2102-7337_3-5869832.html?tag=st.util.print

Thanks and best wishes - Josh
---------
Crave privacy? New tech knocks out digital cameras  - CNet - 9-19-05
http://news.com.com/2102-7337_3-5869832.html?tag=st.util.print

"....The Georgia Tech system essentially exploits the  
"retroreflective" property of digital camera lenses. When light  
strikes a retroreflective surface, a portion of the light bounces  
back to the original source. While eyeglasses, bottles, watches and  
other glass surfaces are retroreflective, a coating on virtually all  
digital camera lenses puts cameras in a class of their own.

"The film atop lenses (is) highly reflective," said Patel. "A lot of  
people probably have known this but they haven't thought about  
leveraging it."

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.

The neutralizing light continues until the camera lens can no longer  
be detected, which prevents video cameras from capturing clear footage.

For added security, the system emits light beams in a pattern that  
prevents cameras from compensating for the light. (In the lab  
prototype, the video camera, with its built-in infrared beam, serves  
as the camera detector, while the projector is the neutralizer.)

The technology can detect and block multiple cameras and works on  
cameras with either CCD or CMOS imagers <http://news.com.com/Picture 
+this+A+new+breed+of+cameras/2009-1006_3-5559249.html?tag=nl>, which  
are used in the vast majority of digital cameras.

The neutralizing light is also highly focused to minimize  
distractions. "We only light up pixels where the reflection is coming  
from," Patel said...."

--
Josh Duberman, Pivotalinfo LLC
pivotalinfo () usa net; Cell:(425) 591-8200;
Information For Solutions In Business & Science





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