Make Your Face Invisible to CCTV
From Wired:
A German art project could help the British avoid the oppressive proliferation of surveillance cameras in their country. The I-R.A.S.C is simple, consisting of a circle of infra-red LEDs mounted on a headband. The infra red is invisible to The Man, but will cause CCTV cameras to flare out over the face of the wearer, obscuring his identity and making this the digital equivalent of a hooded sweatshirt.
This is not a production unit, but given that you'd only need a hat, a battery and a few LEDs, you could easily knock one up in the garage.
Volunteers to make a prototype, field test, and report back?
A German art project could help the British avoid the oppressive proliferation of surveillance cameras in their country. The I-R.A.S.C is simple, consisting of a circle of infra-red LEDs mounted on a headband. The infra red is invisible to The Man, but will cause CCTV cameras to flare out over the face of the wearer, obscuring his identity and making this the digital equivalent of a hooded sweatshirt.
This is not a production unit, but given that you'd only need a hat, a battery and a few LEDs, you could easily knock one up in the garage.
Volunteers to make a prototype, field test, and report back?
posted by Concerned American | 3:05 AM
10 Comments:
i've thought about trying this, but i haven't found any CCTVs anywhere to test it with. i do have everything but the infrared LEDs lying around. maybe something will come up.
Recently we were introduced to technology that - mounted in a police patrol car - reads every license plate it passes, automatically compares each of them to a list of cars that may be of interest to the police and sounds an alarm when it gets a 'hit.'
I wonder if this 'home workshop' technology would defeat that too. I'm technologically challenged or I'd try it out. If anyone else can wire one up and publish the circuit diagram I could build it but I can't design it.
Any particulars on the IR LEDs? Wavelength/frequency (nanometers / Angstroms, etc)?
Or just any General Purpose IR LED?
Please respond to my email:
woodmanb@hotmail.com
B Woodman
All I know is what is in the article.
It is my kinda educated guess (3 years EE schooling and much more informal stuff) that any freq IR will work. Higher power is obviously better. Both example pictures are taken in dark settings where the gain on the cameras would be higher, I don't think this would work well in daylight with normal brightness IR or with practical batteries.
And you know that in two months such an action will be punished with a 5 year prison sentence.
This will work. I recall seeing this pop up a few months ago, and one of the techno-geeks that I know suggested a simple test. Turn on any digital camera that has a view screen and point your TV remote at it. When you push any button on the remote, you'll see a flash on the viewfinder. Seems the chip in digital cameras that picks up light is sensitive to IR, which is what the remote sends out. Also an easy way to check to see if the batteries in your remote are dead.
IR LED's are cheap. eBay has them in any quantity you want at about $0.10 each, as do most of the electronics supply houses (Mouser, Radio Shack, etc.). If you've never worked with LED's before, they can be difficult- the leads are polarity specific and they work with low (usually 4.5V) DC voltages. Three AA batteries will run a half dozen LED's for a long time.
If you need a wiring diagram, let me know and I'll see if I can find a neutral corner of Usenet to post one to.
ranamacar
Update:
I've created a blog and posted my opinion on how something like this could be put together.
http://ranamacar.blogspot.com/
Don't expect a lot of activity on my blog- I don't have that much to say.
ranamacar
Does anyone have any specs on the models of camera ccds used in police cars or traffic cams, per Oldfart's Suggestion?
"And you know that in two months such an action will be punished with a 5 year prison sentence."
Anonymous, please qualify your statement above. If this is true this is just one more example of how out of control our government has become. Who are they to say anything if I want to walk around with some led lights on my ball cap or with 2 chem lights sticking out of my ears and shining a flashlight under my face like a jack-o-lantern for that matter? Don't I have a right to dress or express myself as I see fit? Don't I have a right to privacy?
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