Preventing camera recording by designing a capture-resistant environment

  • Authors:

  • Khai N. Truong;Shwetak N. Patel;Jay W. Summet;Gregory D. Abowd

  • Affiliations:

  • College of Computing & GVU Center, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA;College of Computing & GVU Center, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA;College of Computing & GVU Center, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA;College of Computing & GVU Center, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

  • Venue:
  • UbiComp'05 Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Ubiquitous Computing
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

With the ubiquity of camera phones, it is now possible to capture digital still and moving images anywhere, raising a legitimate concern for many organizations and individuals. Although legal and social boundaries can curb the capture of sensitive information, it sometimes is neither practical nor desirable to follow the option of confiscating the capture device from an individual. We present the design and proof of concept implementation of a capture-resistant environment that prevents the recording of still and moving images without requiring any cooperation on the part of the capturing device or its operator. Our solution involves a tracking system that uses computer vision for locating any number of retro-reflective CCD or CMOS camera sensors in a protected area. A pulsing light is then directed at the lens, distorting any imagery the camera records. Although the directed light interferes with the camera's operation, it can be designed to minimally impact the sight of other humans in the environment.