What is a photo radar jammer and how does it compare to a photo radar detector? While there are several products that detect and alert to the physical location of speed cameras, photo radar and red light cameras, all with fixed locations of longitude and latitude; photo radar detectors can not detect many speed cameras. But a photo radar jammer does not care about location, as it is designed to detect active photo radar speed traps that are turned on and operational and then prevent the photograph of your license plates.
Speed cameras, red light cameras and mobile speed vans frequently use radar to detect the speed of the vehicle, and when the vehicle speed is above a predefined speed, the radar gun triggers the camera to take a picture, based on the speed of the vehicle. No matter what speed the vehicle is traveling, the camera will trigger at just the right moment that the vehicle will be in the middle of the photograph. Then the image is emailed to a process center, or saved to a hard drive and retrieved weekly by the process center for processing. The image is processed through an alpha-numeric character recognition, and the license plate registration is matched with the vehicle owner. Once the speed is associated with a registered driver, then the photo speeding ticket is mailed to the registered driver.
A photo radar detector, such as a Passport 9500ci or Cheetah C100 would alert to the location of the fixed speed camera and red light camera, thus can alert you to the location, but the camera may or may not be operating. Sometimes it is a fake box. Sometimes the camera is turned off at various times or various periods of time, and of course sometimes the speed camera location is always active, turned on and fully operational. However, the photo radar detector has no capability of knowing the speed camera is turned on or off, as a photo radar detector simply alerts to a GPS location (longitude and latitude). Further a photo radar detector will not have any location alerts for Mobile speed vans using speed cameras in the back of their vans. The reason for this is that, by definition, the speed van can drive to any location it chooses, thus there is no fixed GPS location, thus photo radar detectors have no capability to alert to these mobile photo radar speed traps.
There are photo scramblers called photo spray that people use to make it difficult to image the license plate. The way photo spray is supposed to work is by spraying spraying liquid droplets onto the plates, letting the droplets evaporate into millions of little crystals over the license plate surface. When the camera flashes the vehicle, the millions of small crystals cause the light to scatter in many different directions away from the camera, making it difficult to see the plate. The problem with the photo spray, is that the new digital speed cameras have a very wide range of electronic vision. Our eyes can see colors from low blue to high red (400 nanometers to 725 nanometers), but cameras can see from deep ultraviolet (well below 400 nanometers) to far above red, called infrared about 1100 nanometers. The digital cameras can see photo spray, thus the photo spray is easily defeated by the digital capabilities of the process center.
Another form of photo scrambler is a license plate lens placed over the license, which basically causes the reflected light to be scattered in many directions away from the camera. The same problem exists with license plate lenses, since the new digital speed cameras and red light cameras can see through the plates. But police can see these plates too, and in most states, when police see the license plate lens over the license plate, the driver gets pulled over for “OBSFUCATION”, which is hiding the license plate. So the License plate lens is ineffective and there is a high probability that you would get a ticket for Obsfucation. Maybe not a good idea.
Photo radar jammers are designed to detect the flash of the camera, whether it uses white light or invisible infrared light. As we discussed above, speed cameras frequently use radar to detect speed, but a photo radar jammer does not interfere with the radar gun. Sometimes a speed camera uses magnetic speed indicators under the road, but a photo radar jammer does not interfere with the magnetic indicators. A speed camera uses light to image your vehicle and license plate. Some photo radar jammers, called flash back photo jammers, interfere with the camera operation by flashing light back at the speed camera, attempting to blind the camera. There are two limitations with Flash Back Photo radar Jammers. One issue is the amount of light required to blind the camera is far too high, thus Flash Back Jammers are typically too low in light power (lumens) to blind a camera. The second issue is that flash back jammers are designed to interfere with the speed camera photography, making it illegal in many locations.
Another version of Photo Radar Jammer is called a FLASH DOWN Photo Jammer, where all the light is used to simply illuminate the license plate when there is an attempt to photograph your license plate by speed cameras and paparazzi. It detects the speed camera photograph attempt, alerts the driver and electronically protects the license plate without interfering with the camera. A Flash Down, Photo radar jammer does not interfere with radar, nor does it interfere with the speed camera. It does detect the speed trap, which is legal. Thus a Flash Down, Photo radar Jammer is legal and highly effective to protect a single license plate or both of your license plates.
Call 1stRadarDetectors.com at 303-678-9101 to discuss photo radar detectors and photo radar jammers.
John Turner
