NoPhoto is Jonathan Dandrow’s electronic countermeasure for traffic-cameras. It’s a license-plate frame that uses sensors to detect traffic-cameras, and floods the plate with bright light that washes out the plate number when the cameras take the picture. It’s presently a prototype, but he’s seeking $80,000 through Indiegogo to get UL certification and go into production.
Dandrow believes that traffic cameras are unconstitutional, because “if you do commit a traffic violation, you should have your constitutionally guaranteed right to face your accuser – and that your accuser should not win by default just because it happens to be a camera that can’t talk in court.”
His device is made in the USA, and (he says) it is legal to use in the US.
Here is how a typical traffic camera encounter would happen with the noPhoto installed on your car:
1 The traffic camera fires its flash to illuminate your car for a picture
2 The noPhoto detects the flash, analyzes it, and sends the proper firing sequence to its own xenon flashes
3 The noPhoto precisely times and fires the flash at the exact moment needed to overexpose the traffic camera
4 Since the traffic camera is not expecting the additional light from the noPhoto, all of its automated settings are incorrect and the image is completely overexposed. Your license plate cannot be seen you and you will not get a ticket in the mail.
Dandrow also says that traffic cams cause more accidents than they prevent, citing studies by the Federal Highway Administration and the Virginia Transportation Research Council, “The increase in rear-end collisions alone from people slamming on their brakes to avoid being ticketed is enough to increase accident rates overall.”
(via Rawfile)