In theory, if you had some kind of camera that could identify ALPR cameras automatically, I don’t think that there are any laws against dazzling them with a laser or something, but I don’t think that there are any products that can do that.
I flashed it to my board once, yet I couldn’t manage to get it to work. This was back when I was new to ESP32 systems, so I likely could’ve just flashed it wrong, but even if it doesnt function in the current state, the framework is all there to go off of if someone wants to make a fork of it. It doesnt necessarily detect location though, but it does detect proximity.
Edit: I attempted this a long while back, it has since been updated though, so yay.
Edit2: upon inspection, I definitely fugged up the first time, and it likely has always functioned.
As for tooling to take one down, I do discourage the laser route because it’s a risk to the eyesight of those in the surrounding area. What another thread pointed out is that a simple spraypaint can on a pole can do the job in a safer way, but the technology behind the lense/panel would still be functional. Do avoid cutting it down unless there’s a way to trash it within proximity, too.
For passive protection, surrounding your License plate with 840nm IR LEDs works well in most conditions that isn’t clear daylight. It would also block police plate readers though, so do consider adding a toggle switch to the LED circuit.
As for tooling to take one down, I do discourage the laser route because it’s a risk to the eyesight of those in the surrounding area.
Oh, I’m not talking about something powerful enough to destroy a camera, just to make it so that it can’t read anything while the laser is aimed at it. Laser dazzlers are a thing when it comes to countering satellite reconaissance, and if someone could work out the software side enough to rapidly identify cameras on earth, I’d think that it’d be a legal way to keep them from doing omnipresent monitoring.
I’d think that a lower class lasers, of the sort used in a low-power laser pointer or similar, should be fine:
A Class 1 laser is safe under all conditions of normal use. This means the maximum permissible exposure (MPE) cannot be exceeded when viewing a laser with the naked eye or with the aid of typical magnifying optics (e.g. telescope or microscope).
A Class 2 laser is considered to be safe because the blink reflex (glare aversion response to bright lights) will limit the exposure to no more than 0.25 seconds.
I don’t know if it’s possible to do that, though, with current software; identifying camera lenses might be a hard problem. And if someone made a successful implementation, I could imagine laws against it being passed (“criminals will use it to evade surveillance!”)
Not street-legal without them.
In theory, if you had some kind of camera that could identify ALPR cameras automatically, I don’t think that there are any laws against dazzling them with a laser or something, but I don’t think that there are any products that can do that.
There is a project for that! It’s called “Flock you” at this github page: github.com/colonelpanichacks/flock-you
I flashed it to my board once, yet I couldn’t manage to get it to work. This was back when I was new to ESP32 systems, so I likely could’ve just flashed it wrong, but even if it doesnt function in the current state, the framework is all there to go off of if someone wants to make a fork of it. It doesnt necessarily detect location though, but it does detect proximity.
Edit: I attempted this a long while back, it has since been updated though, so yay.
Edit2: upon inspection, I definitely fugged up the first time, and it likely has always functioned.
As for tooling to take one down, I do discourage the laser route because it’s a risk to the eyesight of those in the surrounding area. What another thread pointed out is that a simple spraypaint can on a pole can do the job in a safer way, but the technology behind the lense/panel would still be functional. Do avoid cutting it down unless there’s a way to trash it within proximity, too.
For passive protection, surrounding your License plate with 840nm IR LEDs works well in most conditions that isn’t clear daylight. It would also block police plate readers though, so do consider adding a toggle switch to the LED circuit.
Oh, I’m not talking about something powerful enough to destroy a camera, just to make it so that it can’t read anything while the laser is aimed at it. Laser dazzlers are a thing when it comes to countering satellite reconaissance, and if someone could work out the software side enough to rapidly identify cameras on earth, I’d think that it’d be a legal way to keep them from doing omnipresent monitoring.
I’d think that a lower class lasers, of the sort used in a low-power laser pointer or similar, should be fine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_safety
I don’t know if it’s possible to do that, though, with current software; identifying camera lenses might be a hard problem. And if someone made a successful implementation, I could imagine laws against it being passed (“criminals will use it to evade surveillance!”)
Tell that to the 1 in 10 car in my area who just doesn’t have plates.
And yes it’s illegal to modify or cover in any way in most states. Any cover, even clear, is often illegal.
But, no one is pulling anyone over.