Spycam mails tickets to owners of loud cars

We thought the PhotoViolationMeter -- a parking meter that can take pics of your car to prove you're illegally parked -- was the ultimate in traffic-cop annoyances. But it looks like the new setup from Australia's Acoustic Research Labs has it beat. The system, based on technology developed for the Australian Navy, uses cameras, sound-level meters and other equipment to monitor noise coming from nearby cars. If your stereo is turned up too loud, or your exhaust is a bit too noisy, the system will snap a pic of your plate and automatically send you a ticket. Since the system works by detecting differences in ambient noise levels and singles out anomalies, we assume you can beat it if you just convince everyone in your neighborhood to be as loud as possible at all times. Oh, wait, New York is already like that. Never mind.