HP's paparazzi-stopping privacy protection system
By Peter Rojas 
posted Nov 22nd 2004 10:50AM
posted Nov 22nd 2004 10:50AM
The headline in the The Times made us a little worried that someday we'd have to a face a world without celebrity spy photos, so it was a relief to read on and realize that the "privacy protection system" HP is working on—that involves a special wearable electronic badge that can stop digital cameras from taking pictures of people's faces—only works with "compatible cameras". (Sounds a lot like those methods for disabling the cameras in cameraphones.) They're billing it as a paparazzi-stopper, but could someone please explain why any member of the paparazzi, or anyone else for that matter, would ever buy a camera that someone else could disable?
[Via picturephoning]
if it was nikon or canon then it would be weird... but hp... no paparazi uses hp cameras.. and if they do... they obviously gonna switch to another brand if this crappy idea gets its way...my guess is HP ppl are just crazy and have nothing better to do...
Conversation between 2 celebrities, somewhere in the future of HP's gadget..
Celeb1 (looking at a glam-magazine): Oh my! Who is that?
Celeb2: That's Britney!
Celeb1: What happened to her?
Celeb2: She went outside without her paparazzi-protective clothes!
Celeb1: Poor thing!
Celeb2: Yeah, she used to be someone but as a real celebrity you can't afford such an error!
You create the software/technology, then try to get the lawmakers to make it mandatory.
I would think a pendant or glasses or earings with a small Infrared light would work on any digital camera. If it was bright enough none of the images would ever be usable. Certainly would keep the average store cameras from getting a good look at you.
True enough. Despite being slightly unfeasible, something that with an infra-red led-emitter that could send enough of the light in the general direction of the camera would temporarily "blind" the CCD. Of course the only issue is creating an array that would provide sufficient cover from multiple angles and making sure the battery pack lasts long enough (the latter being less of an issue if lower powered LEDs are used—sacrificing coverage strength though).
infrared is only work one direction. if there are many photographers trying to take pictures of celebs, there is small chance the infrared will protect the celebs.
Incidentally, many professional dSLR's have an IR filter protecting the sensor.