A BRITISH invention that thwarts roadside speed enforcement cameras goes on
sale this week. But the Home Office says the 拢200 device is 鈥渦nreliable
and ineffective鈥�, and that anyone who uses it might risk arrest for 鈥渃onspiring
to pervert the course of justice鈥�.
Inventor Alwyn Morris has licensed Backflash of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire,
to make and market the Backflash device, whose existence was first revealed by
New 杏吧原创 last year
(12 December, p 19). Flash units are fixed near
the object to be obscured, such as a car鈥檚 number plate. When the device detects
a camera flash, it triggers these flash units. This illuminates the object so
brightly that its image is overexposed.
The device reacts to visible flashes or the invisible infrared flashes used
in newer speed cameras to trap motorists unawares. Backflash says the device is
designed to protect celebrities against paparazzi cameras, not for tricking
traffic cameras. But Morris鈥檚 patent says the technology can be used for
鈥減reventing a vehicle being identified by a speed camera鈥� (GB 2 324 858).
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