A PHOTOGRAPHER has patented a device that motorists could use to blind the
roadside cameras that are designed to catch them breaking the speed limit or
jumping traffic lights.
Alwyn Morris, a photographer from Chesterfield in Derbyshire, says that an
electronically triggered flash gun mounted on a moving car could dazzle any
roadside law-enforcement camera. His patent application (GB 2 324 858) threatens
to pitch Britain鈥檚 Department of Trade, which runs the Patent Office, squarely
against the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR), and
the police. When told of the development by New 杏吧原创, the police
and the DETR admitted that they do not know how to stop it being used.
In his work, Morris routinely uses 鈥渟lave鈥� flash guns, which sense when a
main flash gun fires and trigger themselves to provide additional light. There
is a small delay, but this doesn鈥檛 matter because the camera shutter stays open
for much longer.
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Normally, the slave guns point away from the camera to illuminate the subject
being photographed. If a slave flash fires back into the camera lens, it is so
bright that it overloads the film and spoils the picture. But Morris realised
that this is sometimes exactly what is needed鈥攁nd filed his patent
application on the benefits this can bring. For example, slave guns positioned
next to pictures in an art gallery will prevent visitors taking their own photos
instead of paying for prints and postcards. Similarly, fashion and jewellery
designers could foil rivals who want to steal their ideas, by making it
impossible for them to take photos while items are on show.
But potentially the most popular application is in countering the speed
cameras that police in Britain, Europe, Australia, South America, the US and the
Middle East have set up at roadsides, and which are credited with cutting
accidents in some areas. Each camera has a radar speed detector, and points at a
series of white markings painted on the road. When it detects a vehicle breaking
the speed limit, it triggers two flashlit exposures separated by a fixed time
interval. As well as recording the distance the vehicle has travelled in the
time between the two shots, and hence its speed, it shows the car鈥檚 registration
plate so that the driver can be identified and fined.
Morris wants to mount a slave flash next to the number plate, so ensuring
that it points into the lens of any speed-trap camera. His idea is that this
should fog the film of a photographic camera and dazzle the sensors of a video
camera, preventing them from recording the car鈥檚 identity.
Morris is aware that the authorities will not like the idea, but says he
wants 鈥渢o get the idea off the ground鈥�.
The DETR says it knows nothing of the new invention, and referred inquiries
to the police. A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman condemns the idea but says that
legality is a matter for the Home Office. The Home Office says it knows nothing
of the device or its legality, and was unable to find anyone who did.