Finally a spy camera killer

[Si Ballenger]

Hey, it's a proof of concept paper. Stay tuned for commercially produced
devices.

The movie stars who want privacy will love this. I can see a stooge
accompanying a star carrying something like this just above eye level.
Or else built into a home security system.

Al

Just blind the cams with an array of IR LEDs. Won't blind the
people. The LED arrays are cheap, and just keep them on all the
time.

 

[Ian Stirling]

On 20 Sep 2005 10:27:13 GMT,

It can, but it ain't. Just look at the AVI movie demonstrating the
technique: The reflection off the convex plastic surface of the cell
phone is brigther than that from the actual lens. It's easily seen in
the "Camera detection" sequence of the movie.

There are ways round this.
Two light sources at slightly different wavelengths slightly seperated,
with colocated cameras.
A camera is a reteroreflector, and will reflect into both cameras.
A mirror will only reflect into one.
Bare eyes can be detected by looking at the spectrum of the reflected light.
Sunglasses/tinted contacts may be hard.
Looking at the spectrum of the reflected light over areas would work too.
For an extended light source that the camera is focussed on, a camera
will reflect back to that light source red/green/blue patterns.

 

[Ian Stirling]

Just blind the cams with an array of IR LEDs. Won't blind the
people. The LED arrays are cheap, and just keep them on all the
time.

All I'd do would be to stick a better IR filter on my camera.
Job done.