Annoying Traffic Cameras Are No Match for Subversive Technology
I admit to a weakness for anything that, intentionally or otherwise, sticks it to the man. And I really don't like automated traffic cameras that issue tickets to alleged speeders and red-light runners who are often driving at perfectly safe speeds and cornering on too-closely timed yellow lights. The damned things aren't just annoying, they're often optimized less for traffic safety than for generating revenue. So I'm tickled by a newly developed license plate frame that renders traffic cameras impotent.
From Wired:
Jonathan Dandrow has developed noPhoto, which renders the pix snapped by those revenue-generating robo-cams useless. The technology behind noPhoto is fairly simple. At the top of the gadget, which doubles as a license plate frame, there's an optical flash trigger that detects the flash of the traffic-light camera. That trigger sets off one or both xenon flashes in the sides of the noPhoto, so when the traffic-light camera opens its shutter, there's too much light and the picture of your license plate is overexposed. Big Brother can't read your plate.
I'm going to take a wild guess that the powers-that-be won't be pleased by this latest technological development. That likely means a legal response aimed at prohibiting the sale of noPhoto on the open market. But once a technology is out of the bag …
