Crave privacy? New tech knocks out digital cameras

By Michael Kanellos
http://news.com.com/Crave+privacy+Ne...cameras/2100-=
7337_3-5869832.html

Story last modified Mon Sep 19 04:00:00 PDT 2005



Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have come up with an
inexpensive way to prevent digital cameras and digital video cameras
from capturing that secret shot.

The technology they've devised detects the presence of a digital camera
up to 33 feet away and can then shoot a targeted beam of light at the
lens, according to Shwetak Patel, a grad student at the university and
one of the lead researchers on the project.
click to view photos of prototype

That means that someone trying for a surreptitious snapshot of, say, a
product prototype or an amorous couple gets something altogether less
useful--a blurry picture (or a video) of what looks like a flashlight
beam, seen head on. (A video of how the system works can be viewed
here.)

The group has developed a lab prototype--which consists of a digital
projector with a modified video camera mounted on top--but will soon
design a device that could be manufactured and sold commercially. The
group, which presented a paper on its work at Ubicomp (The Seventh
International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing) in Tokyo last week,
is also in contact with large consumer electronics manufacturers.

Though photo-foiling gadgets are one possibility, the technology might
also eventually be incorporated into digital projectors and other
devices as a feature.

The Georgia Tech researchers aren't alone in their pursuit. Tech giant
Hewlett-Packard, for one, has applied for a patent on technology that
could remotely cause blurry pictures in digital cameras, but it
requires putting additional circuitry inside the camera. HP and others
are also working on projection technology meant to stymie video piracy.

The technology is a stab at ameliorating the privacy problems that have
arisen with the advent, quick ubiquity and tiny dimensions of digital
cameras. Nearly 85 percent of cell phones in Japan come with built-in
digital cameras, and the figure for North America and Western Europe is
supposed to rise to 80 percent by the end of next year, according to
market researcher Gartner.

"It certainly is a concern, and it has been a concern since cameras
have gotten really small," said Steve Baker, an analyst at NPD Group.
"It is a lab trick that has some real-world application."

Companies commonly confiscate digital cameras temporarily from visitors
coming to their labs or confidential meetings. "But you can't
confiscate a phone. Someone might be expecting an important call,"
Patel said.

Many companies also maintain strict no-photography policies in quasi
public places. Someone trying to take pictures inside a Wal-Mart or an
electronics boutique will immediately draw a warning, or expulsion.
Conferences also have similar rules. Patel himself got in trouble
trying to take a picture of a "No Photography" sign to illustrate where
theinvention could be used.

"If it is a big exhibit hall, it is impossible to confiscate all of the
cameras," said Patel.

How it works
The Georgia Tech system essentially exploits the "retroreflective"
property of digital camera lenses. When light strikes a retroreflective
surface, a portion of the light bounces back to the original source.
While eyeglasses, bottles, watches and other glass surfaces are
retroreflective, a coating on virtually all digital camera lenses puts
cameras in a class of their own.

"The film atop lenses (is) highly reflective," said Patel. "A lot of
people probably have known this but they haven't thought about
leveraging it."

In this system, a device bathes the region in front of it with infrared
light. When an intense retroreflection indicates the presence of a
digital camera lens, the device then fires a localized beam of light
directly at that point. Thus, the picture gets washed out.

The neutralizing light continues until the camera lens can no longer be
detected, which prevents video cameras from capturing clear footage.

For added security, the system emits light beams in a pattern that
prevents cameras from compensating for the light. (In the lab
prototype, the video camera, with its built-in infrared beam, serves as
the camera detector, while the projector is the neutralizer.)

The technology can detect and block multiple cameras and works on
cameras with either CCD or CMOS imagers, which are used in the vast
majority of digital cameras.

The neutralizing light is also highly focused to minimize distractions.
"We only light up pixels where the reflection is coming from," Patel
said.
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More work lies ahead for the researchers. The current implementation
works indoors and only up to certain distances--it's effective at a
range of up to 10 meters and covers a 45-degree area. Cameras close to
the detector and at a sharp angle can fall into an undetectable dead
zone. Fast shutter speeds might also present some challenges, as do
filters, though it turns out that the camera detector can spot lenses
cloaked with infrared filters.

While the prototype relies on a digital projector for the neutralizing
light source, the group believes it can also use a laser pointer and
two mirrors to foil photographers.

"That will make it a lot cheaper to do," Patel said.

The prototype is also rather indiscriminate--it knocks out whatever it
believes to be a camera. Some companies have released antiphotography
tools, but those tools work only if the camera or cell phone has a
Bluetooth chip--and then only if the gadgets are preprogrammed to shut
down when the chip receives a "no photographs" message.

So the broad nature of the Georgia Tech system is a good thing, Patel
said. "It doesn't require cooperation of the camera."


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