Dave Horvath
20 Jun 2006 5:23
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has been working closely with developers from the Georgia Institute of Technology to produce a device aimed at blinding people who record movies illegally in theaters.
While not looking to physically harm any individuals, a team of engineers have developed a prototype device that is able to scan theaters and look for recording devices such as personal camcorders. With this prototype, connected to a computer, they can scan the theater looking for a digital recorder's charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor. Each CCD inside all digital recorders are retroreflective, meaning they reflect light directly back at the point of origin. Once found, this prototype will flood the target with a blinding white light rendering the recording useless.
This prototype is still early in the developmental phase and the researchers still haven't figured out how to weed out false positives from shiny objects in the room. However, with the MPAA claiming a $1.2 billion loss due to recorded movies in Asia, they hope to have this technology up and running soon.
Source:
BBC