A device that could foil movie pirates who covertly record films in cinemas has been developed in the US.

The prototype is able to locate the position of a digital camera, before overwhelming it with white light to render any recorded images useless.

 

The Georgia Institute of Technology team says the invention could also prevent clandestine photography.

 

However, the device is unable to block conventional film or the SLR cameras, preferred by the paparazzi.

 

"We're at a point right now where the prototype we have developed could lead to products for markets that have a small, critical area to protect," said Professor Gregory Abowd of the Georgia Tech College of Computing.

 

In particular, his team is looking at ways to prevent photography in government buildings or at trade shows, where industrial espionage could be a problem.

 

The team is also working with the motion picture industry to prevent illegal copying of films, which has become a particular problem in parts of Asia.

 

A study released by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) said that movie piracy in China cost the film industry $2.7bn (£1.5bn) in 2005.

 

White light

 

The technology works by looking for the digital camera's image sensor known as a charge-coupled device (CCD).

 

These silicon sensors are retroreflective, which means that they reflect light directly back to its origin, rather than scattering it.

 

Some road-signs and vehicle licence plates are also retroreflective.

 

The prototype uses two cameras, linked to a computer, to look for this reflected light from a target camera's CCD.

 

As the reflected light is travelling in a straight line from the CCD, it allows the computer system to accurately pinpoint the location of the camera.

 

Once found, the system floods the CCD with white light from a projector to "blind" the camera.

 

"The biggest problem is making sure we don't get false positives from, say, a large shiny earring," said Jay Summet, a research assistant at Georgia Tech who helped build the device.

 

"We need to make our system work well enough so that it can find a dot, then test to see if it's reflective, then see if it's retroreflective, and then test to see if it's the right shape."

 

Big losses

 

In the future, the researchers believe the system could use infra-red lasers and photo-detecting transistors, rather than cameras to search for CCDs.

 

They also believe that a real-world version would probably use a laser to "blind" the image sensor.

 

At the moment, the team is close to developing a commercial system that neutralises still cameras.

 

Still cameras are easier to spot than camcorders because their CCD is closer to the lens and there is less interference with the reflected light.

 

However, the ultimate goal is to develop a system to combat film piracy.

 

The movie industry is particularly keen to clamp down on this because of the billions of dollars in lost revenue blamed on illegal copying.

 

At present, the industry mostly relies on the alertness of staff at cinemas to spot people filming.

 

However, Disney took this one stage further in 2003 when it issued security staff with night vision goggles and metal detectors, ahead of screenings of the animated movie Finding Nemo.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk

Let they still don't know that a lot of the movie copying is due when someone working in a cinema borrows the dvd of the film.

 

I always laugh at those adverts, because for all the time I been watching unoffical movies (See note), none of them have looked like they got in the adverts.

 

(note, i watch unoffical movies because:

1 - Nearest cinema is 20 miles away

2 - Costs £7 to get a ticket

3 - Did I say the nearest cinema is 20 miles away?

they do film in the cinema though. we were going into a film in Stockport, and we saw the police headed into an adjacent screen to pull someone out. We heard the cinema staff saying it was because someone was illegally filming

Well such tapes are considered crap in the piracy circles, most of the pirated material is pirated the way Dave S said, so this won't help much, it'll make crappy shots even crappier though, but I am sure pirates will get the hang of that protection too (frameskip or something) as they always do...

Also if it damages the camera, they can sue for crimerial damage under uk law.

 

criminal damage is criminal law, copyright is civil law. Generally the courts decide that criminal law is worse than civil law :)

What they need is a Pirate party, just like they have in Sweden.

Because regardless of this article, this "copyright protection" is getting way restricting.

Yeah and Disney is probably the most greedy corporation considering copyrights, otherwise Mickey Mouse would be public domain by now...

Also pirates can just the other way of filming (HDR or something like that) or use analouge cameras...

True pirates will always find a way.

They will only frustrate general public with stuff like DRM.