What is the difference between passive anti-photo License Plate Covers and anti-photo sprays versus active Photo Jammers?
Passive
anti-photo license plate covers, such as Chameleon, Super
Protector, etc.; are made of plastic with a lens either
designed into the plastic or attached to the plastic cover.
The plate is bolted against the license plate and the
lens is designed to obscure the alpha-numeric characters
at an angle of 20-40 degrees from the side of the road.
This is the typical angle that photo cameras are installed
on the side of the road, but can also be installed above
the road on bridges or poles. The plates will distort
the plate characters at all times from the side of the
road, or from above the road, but not both. Police do
not appreciate this as they drive by your vehicle and
are not able to see your plate for a short period of time.
In most states, this is called obfuscation; i.e., hiding
the plate, and the police will write a ticket in many
instances when they see a dark cover or a lens over the
plate. When a bright light is pointed at the anti-photo
cover as with a camera flash, the distorted characters
will not show up in the photo image under normal photo
imaging. If an analog picture camera is used these types
of anti-photo covers will work great, if you don’t
get a ticket for obscuring your plate. If digital imaging
is used, as with most technology today, these types of
anti-photo plate covers are worthless, as discussed below.
Photo Sprays, such as Photo Blocker, Photo Fog, Photo
Spray (an endless number of product names) are designed
to spray (via hand pump or pressurized can) a liquid over
the surface of your license plates. 99.999% of the customers
do not realize that this type of material is very close
to a hair spray product, or is a hair spray product, re-packaged
in a new can with a different name. (I wonder what is
going through your mind at this point) Liquid chemicals
such as this or hair spray, are emitted as a liquid and
when the liquid drops contact a surface, (whether hair
or a metal plate), the liquid will evaporate, forming
millions of ultra-small crystals, which are cubicle in
form. When a bright light is pointed at the plate as with
a camera flash, the millions of ultra-small crystals on
the license plate will cause a very bright reflection
to the camera; in effect blinding the camera.
The photo camera’s normal operation is to use radar
(sometimes laser) to detect the speed of oncoming vehicles.
When detecting a speed greater than the set point of the
camera (posted speed limit), the radar will command the
camera to trigger at the right moment in time, no matter
how fast you are driving, and take a photo of the plate
(and the driver, if the camera is set up for oncoming
traffic). The image is then sent by email to a processing
facility, or the data is stored on some sort of memory
device and picked up from time to time by an operator.
The images are then compared to a local data base, and
a speeding ticket, based on the speed of the vehicle,
is mailed to the registrant.
When an image from a license plate protector or photo
spray is encountered, the image can be easily inversed
using standard digital photo programs to bring out the
alpha-numeric characters, and the driver still gets a
speeding ticket. So much for the anti-photo plates and
anti-photo sprays.
Active photo jammers come in two designs, both using
a flash detector and bright flash to either blind the
camera image or blind the plate from the camera image.
One active Photo Jammer version will flash back at the
camera to blind the camera and any body who happens to
be looking in the direction of the active photo jammer.
We feel this type of active photo jammer is a hazard to
other drivers. The 2nd type of active Photo Jammer (our
VF1 and VF2) detects the bright flash, but rather
than flash back at the camera, the flash is directed over
the license plate, causing the alpha-numeric characters
to become totally white, no matter what color the characters
are. Because this flash is directed downward, it achieves
the jamming in a safe manner, and blinds only the license
plate from the camera image. In either case of active
photo jamming, the plate is always visible to any police
who happen to drive by. When the active photo jammer detects
a flash, the photo camera gets a picture of bright white
light, thus it does not matter if the image is inversed
electronically; since the image is white, the inverse
of white is black. All the camera will get is white in
normal imaging mode, or black in an inverse image mode,
thus a speeding ticket can not be mailed to the registrant
of the vehicle using an active Photo Radar Jammer product.
If you use the license plate covers, or a photo spray
liquid, it may be a lot less expensive, but you are only
giving your money away, since the operators know they
need only push a button to inverse the photo image to
get the license plate image. Cheap thrills! You still
get a ticket for $29.95, the typical cost of the spray
or license plate cover; and you will likely get a ticket
when using anti-photo plate covers anyway. If you want
safe, superb protection against photo radar traps, click
here for VF1
and VF2 active photo jammers.
