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Uncategorized Saturday, October 20th 2012 at 1:00 pm

NoPhoto License Plate Frame Protects You From Traffic Cams

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Hidden traffic cameras take all the fun out of driving. Even if it seems like there’s nobody around for miles, you never know when there’s going to be a camera on a traffic light or telephone pole that’s going to snap a shot of you driving just a little too fast. There’s nothing worse than getting a ticket in the mail that you didn’t realize you got nicked for at the time. Jonathan Dandrow knows your pain, and he wants to help: He created the NoPhoto, a license plate frame that detects traffic cameras, and blocks your plate number when big brother tries to catch you red-handed.

In the simplest terms, NoPhoto works as a counter-flash, flooding the plate-area with light and making it illegible for a short time. The frame is equipped with a sensor that detects the flash from a traffic camera, which triggers its own flash on a delay intended to make it go off exactly when the camera would be taking its photo.

Dandrow created the device, not because he wants to get out of a few moving violations, but because he feels that issuing tickets based on images from traffic cameras infringes on a driver’s right to due process. “They are trying to circumvent the constitution,” he says. According to Dandrow, the device is completely legal to use in the US, though that may be because most local and state governments haven’t had to deal with them yet.

At the moment, the NoPhoto is still in the prototype phase. If it sounds like something you might be interested in picking up, Dandrow is currently trying to raise $80,000 on IndieGoGo to cover certification and manufacturing costs. According to the site, Dandrow plans to sell the device for about $350 once it’s complete, but investors can get one for pledge $199. If you want to learn more about the device, you can also check out the NoPhoto website.

(NoPhoto via Boing Boing)

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  • http://twitter.com/Lord_Jereth Patrick Deno

    Sorry, but this is not new. People have been using this technology in Europe for years and, sadly, it doesn’t work. The police over there simply up the contrast of their photos and the numbers show right up. Then you get an extra fine on top of the speeding ticket for your troubles. I’ll pass.

  • Idlethoughts

    I believe that just trying to conceal your plate from cameras itself is illegal even here, so you might not even need to speed.

  • Your Food

    SHUT THE FUCK UP PATRICK! I KNOW YOUR MOM AND SHE DIDN’T RAISE NO CLOWN DID SHE?!?!?!

  • Jack Bond

    This is not how you protest injustice. See, we may have the right to due process, but we don’t have the right to circumvent authority. What we do is use one of those other nifty rights called the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Anyone using that technology could, and deserves to get more than a driving ticket.

  • Fail

    oh you, petition the government so one day they might decide to take a look at it. No thanks, I’ll take my civil disobedience. Also how is this any different than a radar detector? Those are legal is some states, if this is actually legit then I can see them becoming legal.

  • Anonymous

    It’s pretty clear to me that they could care less about what mehums think.

  • TC

    Or, just obey the speed limit.

  • Jack Bond

    Well then all I can say is have fun in jail.

  • Pat Riot

    What kind of idiot are you? If we didn’t have the right to circumvent authority, then we wouldn’t even be a nation supposedly independent from Great Britain.

  • Jack Bond

    Are you referring to the English settlers who decided to become their own nation and had to fight in the Revolutionary War because their government didn’t give them the right to circumvent authority?

    We still don’t have the right to circumvent authority. It’s physically POSSIBLE, and people DO IT, but they will and deserve to be put in jail.

  • Alex

    Nobody deserves to be put in jail.

  • Jack Bond

    Murderers deserve to be put in jail. Serial killers deserve death (painless death at the very least).

  • Michelle Enriquez

    $350 is really steep. A speed camera takes your picture at 11 miles over the limit. Plus, there are signs that warn you well ahead of time. If you are going to fast to see the signs, and slow down to within 10 mph of the limit, then you deserve the ticket. I guess it might be worth it to someone who drives like a maniac every time they get behind the wheel, but for me I’d rather pay the ticket or traffic school.