Chez (who used to blog but then got very lazy about it) alerted me to this little gizmo.

A German art project could help the British avoid the oppressive proliferation of surveillance cameras in their country. The I-R.A.S.C is simple, consisting of a circle of infra-red LEDs mounted on a headband. The infra red is invisible to The Man, but will cause CCTV cameras to flare out over the face of the wearer, obscuring his identity and making this the digital equivalent of a hooded sweatshirt.

This is not a production unit, but given that you’d only need a hat, a battery and a few LEDs, you could easily knock one up in the garage.

Now, I’m not sure that it’d work on all cameras, but anything that could reduce the efficiency of the ever present eyes of Big Brother is to be welcomed. But that’s not my main idea for it.

My thinking is this: the most annoying speed camera these days are not the old fashioned GATSOs; they’re the farking average speed ones, and the ANPR cameras that could be turned into average speed ones with ease. And both those are digital based. Which I suspect would be more susceptible to this gadget than a film based camera would be. So: could this system be adopted to work on car number plates? And if so, would it be at all legal to do so?

Pros for it being legal: it’s not in any way obscuring your vehicles identity to any reasonable person (the emphasis being on person, instead of an automated system); it’s not in any way dangerous to other road users; it’s not established enough to be legislated for. Yet.

Cons: it would cost the exchequer money, and we know who much they like that…

Is there anyone out there with half a legal brain? What do you think about it?