From the looks of this stuff, its just a matter of waxing your licence plate so its nice and shiny, some products even advocate waxing along with the product.
Is there some “special” chemical involved in this that makes things more reflective or is it as I suspect, a good can of gloss clear.
Note: I do not think this is a good Idea, I personally think this has “snake oil” written all over it. Just curious what the dopers think.
Note to Mods: I know this thread is probably in a grey area but I am asking more from the “fraudbuster” angle rather than any advocation of breaking any laws concerning methods for defeating traffic enforcement devices. Especially since its pretty obvious that it only works under certain conditions with certain types of cameras. I apologize in advance if you find it inappropriate and lock this thread.
This stuff doesn’t work at all. Ever. Under any circumstances. The reason is that traffic light cameras are mounted high. Since the angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence, the light from the Sun and traffic lights is reflected downward. Unfortunately, if you want glare to blind the cameras, you need to reflect the light back up towards the camera. The most effective way of doing this is already built in to most license plates in the form of reflective paint which, like road signs, reflects light back towards the source using thousands of tiny glass beads and a phenomenon called total internal reflection. This will only have a chance to blind the camera if the light source is directly in line with the camera and the license plate–an unlikely occurrence.
It’s probably made by the same people who gave us green markers for better CD listening, the amazing weightloss pill of the month, etc. There’s one born every minute.
If your plate is visible to a human eye, it’s visible to the camera. If it’s not visible to the human eye, an officer will be along shortly to let you know all about the consequences of that.
FtG’s Rule of Doing Business with Scum: If someone is in the business of cheating on something, what makes you think they won’t cheat you?
I would guess that this product has tiny glass spheres held in suspension.
When the camera flash goes off, the light is internally reflected in the spheres directly back to the flash(cameras and flashes are mounted near each other) thus flooding the camera image with light.
You get similer effects with dew on grass, stop signs, reflective tape, fish scales and many more things.
There was a segment on this in Washington D.C. on channel 4 (nb4.com). I looked all over their site and couldn’t find it. They tried different devices and the only one that worked was a spray on (it was also the cheapest and simplest). It worked by reflecting the flash - and yes the flash goes off during the daytime.
They had a montgomery county (MD) officer try them out. He said something to the effect that none of them worked except the spray but he couldn’t recommend using it because mumble mumble law mumble mumble.
Notwithstanding all the previous posts under the theme of snake oil, I suggest you pay attention to a single line in Extraneous’ post.
Check your state’s laws. Obscuring your license plate, for whatever purpose, is illegal in many states. The snake charmer will get your money in the first instance. The state will get your money in the second.
I must be getting tired. When I first read the subject line I momentarily thought that someone was advocating spraying the cameras, not the license plates. :smack:
But I guess that would work, black paint on the lens would certainly obscure your plate number!
Colorado has just passed a law making it illegal to have a plastic cover on your license plate (you know, to protect this valuable investment from road grime) because some of the covers are darkened and/or polarized or something and foil the cameras.
I hold that because this reason and law were already public knowledge that I have not violated the “Thou shalt not give illegal ‘how to’ information” commandment.
Those license plate covers are primarily for a different purpose: to defeat speed lasers that many police departments are now using. The primary target for them are the license plates, because of the reflective properites I mentioned previously. The second choice target are the front and rear light clusters, which are also relfective, but these don’t give as strong a return as the plates do. The covers allow the license plates to be seen, but scatter the laser beam to the point it is no longer readable by the device.
The thing I find most significant that proves it’s snake oil - they can’t even provide photographic evidence on their website! The “after” picture has been obviously and amatuerishly photoshopped! I could do better with 10 minutes and Microsoft Paint, and I’m not a graphic artist.
Take a look, you’ll see that there is a white rectangle that’s been plopped over the licensce plate that isn’t even centered properly (you can see the left and top edges of the license plate still CLEARLY visible). There is a circle (looks to be centered on the trunk badge), that has been washed out probably by a dodge or burn brush w/some kind of stipple, and the light flares on the trunk badge and the name badge are obviously fake.
Just to check, I copied the “after” picture on top of the “before” picture and made the “after” picture gradually transparent. The before and after picture are EXACTLY the same except for the alterations noted before. The angle of the light, the intensity and position of the shadows, etc. Even if the camera was on a tripod, and they used a cable release or remote switch for the camera, there is no way to make two shots exactly identical outdoors (I imagine with enough patience and good enough equipment you could do it on a set with controlled lighting). Even the time it would take for them to spray this stuff on, SOMETHING would have changed (the shadows for instance, even if only a millimeter or two).
If they can’t even demonstrate that their product works by using two unadulterated photos where they control camera angle, position, distance, and even lighting to some degree, how are we supposed to expect it to work.
It was probably a paid advertisement placed in the Washington Post so it is BeatTheCamera’s trademark but is now somehow associated with the Washington Post.
I have a friend who works for Serco, the company which installs Gatso cameras in Ireland for the Gardai. He occasionally does some check work which means he’s got a bynch of photos of his car with a dummy number plate affixed.
The first speed cameras brought over were UK spec. UK cars have yellow rear plates. The UK cameras were ‘dazzled’ (overexposed I guess) by the white Irish plates and so didn’t work well until, again I guess, they filtered the lens or changed the film speed. I have seen the pictures.
So I’d say that it is possible to blind the camera by increasing the amount of reflected light.
[hijack]
The first Gatso camera in Ireland (I believe it was the first) was installed outside my house in Louth, and ironically, some guy hit it four days later. It was in a dangerous place…friggin’ thing had a cubic metre of concrete as a foundation.
[/hijack]
Finally, the chances of being snapped by these things are slim as long as they are mechanical cameras. The rolls of film contain 800 exposures= 400 cars (2 shots per car for confirmation against road painted calibration marks). So often the things are empty. OR, they may contain ‘dummy flashers’ You can tell if this is the case as the dummy flasher has a cheaper radar that will trigger in both directions, the proper camera only triggers as you drive away from the lens end. God help us when they start weblinking them.
Finally,and apropos of nothing at all, ever seen those autmatically dimming welding masks?
