Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/06/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]And we thought Leica management was dragging its heels on developing the digital M. They're just helping us stay in the game with film bodies. --------------------------------------------- Digital camera blocking technology created ATLANTA, June 19 (UPI) -- Georgia Institute of Technology scientists say they've created a prototype device that can block digital video cameras from working in a specific area. The scientists say the prototype -- which could be used to stymie unwanted use of video or still cameras -- uses off-the-shelf equipment to scan for, find and neutralize digital cameras. The system works by looking for the reflectivity and shape of the image-producing sensors used in digital cameras. Associate GIT Professor Gregory Abowd, who led the study, says the camera-neutralizing technology shows commercial promise in two principal fields -- protecting areas against espionage photography and stopping video copying. Researchers explain a digital camera's image sensor -- called a CCD -- sends light back directly to its origin rather than scattering it, making it relatively easy to detect and identify video cameras. Once a scanning laser and photo-detector located a video camera, the system would flash a thin beam of visible white light directly at the CCD, overwhelming the target camera with light and rendering recorded video unusable. A paper on the technology, which is still under development, was presented during the Ubicomp conference in Tokyo last September.