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Picture Blocking Beer Cooler Keeps Your Face Out of Embarrassing Photos
cylonlover writes "It may sound like something dreamed up by a cheesy men's magazine as a joke, but apparently this is a real thing that actually exists. Ostensibly, the Norte Photoblocker is a functional beer cooler surrounded by four sensors that can detect the flashes from cameras or cell phones. If a flash goes off in the direction of the Photoblocker, it fires its own flash to flood the resulting photos with bright white and obscure anyone nearby. Now you can go about your usual business of cheating on your spouse, being an idiot around your boss, or drunkenly harassing fellow party-goers without worrying that some wildly irresponsible person will tag you in a photo and posts it online."
Because there is no way to take a photo without a flash.
I dream of a nation where a man is not judged by his skin color but by an number assigned by a credit rating agency.
This will go great with my strobe light at my next party!
If you're an adult, no problem going to a bar/party. Just don't strip to your undies and and poor beer on yourself. If you're married, don't go out to public places with the prostitute/mistress. Don't throw wild keggers in your backyard. If you're going to go through this much trouble not to have your picture taken, you may want to 1) rethink your priorities, or 2) do such things in relative privacy with people you trust.
If you're still young, go be an idiot. That's what college is for, generally.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
It's best to just be the type of person who doesn't show up in photographs.
Can't wait to put this on my car and scooter. Hopefully it takes care of those speed/red light cameras.
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." [Thomas Jefferson]
Not of me of course, I was merely an innocent bystander, too afraid of my wifes wrath.
Feed the need: Digitaladdiction.net
I always thought a similar device would be good defence against speed camera's - much easier to just not speed though (in my old/slow car)
Also, if the blocker thing is behind the camera, it won't work. Also, if the blocker thing is covered by a cardboard box, it won't work.
Can I get this for my license plates?
would the first stray flash trigger a duel to the death?
... by any anti-redeye camera that does a pre-flash. However, it is quite successful if considered solely as a promotional tool for this particular beer company.
You know it's a computer-generated farce, right? (It's not a real product.)
What's wrong with just rigging up an infrared ball cap? Why aren't those being sold yet?
No fair! You changed the outcome by measuring it!
I'm not sure if you've ever actually been to a bar or real party (read: rager) but most of those environments are dark enough that without flash, your pictures are nearly useless when attempting to identify people.
Not so for me. I use a Nikon D700 camera with a 85mm f/1.4 lens and need no flash to shoot in near-darkness. I have many images to back up that statement.
Place nail here >+
Already available if you have a soldering iron.
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-add-led-lights-avoid-speed-detection-while-driving-222857/
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
While arguably an interesting light show, I don't think that's an intended behavior.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
...over the heads of some commenters.
Luke, help me take this mask off
are you an official photographer? do you go to shows where they let you use good equipment or at least don't try too hard to stop you?
I don't have luck taking photos at concerts unless I'm standing real close.
if it's not way-too-dark, glare from stage lights can mess up the shot.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
I have a slave strobe that fits into a standard light socket. I use it to improve exposure from weak flashes in a dark room. Here it is: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/121845-REG/Smith_Victor_690001_45_W_S_Screw_in_Strobe.html
A pretty good marketing stunt, but I'm sure other uses can be found for this in areas where photos are not desired for privacy reasons.
One that I can think of right away would be at abortion clinics. Many protestors will try to take photographs of the people entering the clinics and then post them online to try and shame them. I'd love to see this sort of tech spoil their day.
This thing is not on the market, an Argentinian ad agency came up with the idea for a beer company, though the article linked to says they've been distributed to bars across Argentina. http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-norte-beer-136868
This is a pretty risky idea, FYI. If the cops can get even a partial plate number, combined with the make and model of your car, they can most likely track you down, and will have additional incentive to do so when they see the bright IR flash in the photo. You're better off just not speeding/running red lights. If you go a bit over the limit, or accidentally run a light by mistiming the yellow, then you probably won't get a ticket. The systems are not fully automated - they get screened and marginal cases are thrown out because they don't want to bother with a case that might actually go to court (can't make money on those!). Having plate obscuring systems is just going to draw unwanted attention to your car.
There's no way this thing could maintain the energy to fire-off a flash, continuously, nor respond in-time to a received flash, to blind the camera taking the picture
Dunnof it its implemented here (corporate restrictions), but it's very well possible to do. A simple circuit can consist of an LDR, two transisors (in Darlington), some resistors, a POTmeter for adjustment, a fast flashlight (probably led based) and a couple of high energy capacitors to store the charge (charge supplied by batteries). You only have to flash before the shutter closes to overexpose the picture so, assuming there will only be phone camera's, 1/100th of a second after the "trigger" flash should do. 1/1000th should be possible.
assuming the camera taking the picture is even using a flash.
Most parties are quite dark, from a photography perspecive. Most phone cams (the most cams used in this kind of thing) use flash to compensate for the small lens
Then again, how do you know the cooler will even be in the shot with you? You don't, and that's kind of the point.
Earlier in the replies somebody noted it was a 1-beer type of cooler. If I may assume it's in your hand (containing the beer you are drinking) it will probably be in the picture.
Also, I agree with the previous poster who said something like "a good way not to have your photograph taken doing something stupid or embarrassing in public, is to refrain from doing things that are stupid and embarrassing in public
I agree, and so does the writer of the summary:
Now you can go about your usual business of cheating on your spouse, being an idiot around your boss, or drunkenly harassing fellow party-goers without worrying that some wildly irresponsible person will tag you in a photo and posts it online.
Your sarcasm meter is way off if it didn't detect that. I have a $10K repair kit for sale if you need it.
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
you need to approve photos tagged of you before people can see them..
hardly a concern..
I go to Erotica in London every year (if you don't know what it is, google it - it's held at Olympia every November).
In previous years, photography has been banned outright. You were even supposed to leave cameras with security if you had them on you when you arrived.
This year, the terms and conditions allowed for photography as long as it was with the consent of the subject. I guess they realised they were fighting a tide and couldn't police all the camera phones so just gave in to the inevitable.
Lots of people dress up (or down!) for it, though, and some give free rein to their "thing" - you see people in slave gear, cross dressers and so on. Despite the rules, people were taking surreptitious snaps which no doubt would end up online. OK, the subjects won't be tagged, but who's to say that they won't be spotted?
While I firmly believe noone should care what you do in your private life, a genuine picture blocker would be useful in the sad world in which we live.
Sigs are so 1990s. No way would I be seen dead with one.
This just seems stupid.
You don't even need a full-frame camera with an expensive 1.4 lens in order to get good shots.
Any camera with manual control over aperture and flash output will do.
This "picture blocking beer cooler"(TM)(C) is just an additional light-source with constant output, so consider it as such :
1) Camera set to Manual mode (let's say ISO 100, f/3.5, 1/60, Daylight WB) and low pop-up flash on manual (say 1/16). The pop-up flash only helps to trigger the beer-cooler, and soon won't contribute to the picture. It's on manual to avoid pre-flashes that could mess up the beer-cooler and the exposure.
2) Take a picture with the beer cooler 2 feet apart from your subject.
3) It's probably too bright. Dial down your aperture till you get decent looking light on the subject. Say it's f/11.
4) The cooler will still be much too bright. Either you don't care and leave it in the frame for a cool flare effect, or you move it just outside of your frame, without changing the distance from cooler to subject.
5) Your ambient light is probably too dark, and you only see a well-exposed subject between a big flare and and an almost black background.
6) If other coolers are around, this might look cool, with patches of people well exposed in the background and even more flare.
7) The shutter speed doesn't have any influence on the exposure of the beer-cooler or the flash-lit subject, so you can use a longer exposure to bring back some detail to the environment.
8) You can even use long exposure (say 2 seconds) to get cool looking pictures. You don't care about camera-shake, because the beer-cooler will freeze the moment. You can even zoom or rotate the camera during the exposure. Using rear-curtain flash might bring more natural-looking pictures.
9) Take good pictures all night long without having to change any parameter, without using too much battery because your flash is now outsourced.
They pull on a leather mask with a zipper over the mouth before going to the "club".
FRA: STFU GTFO
Hardly. Not unless they are investigating a murder and this is the only way of tracing you (and it's a TV show.) The drones who handle traffic fines sure as hell aren't going to track down each and every partial plate. If they don't get a readable plate, they dump it. The resources required to track you down, get a suitable warrant to search your vehicle on private property, get enough guys to serve it (on the assumption that you'll be a drunk/belligerent idiot) would not be worth the result. Seriously, think how few outstanding warrants for unpaid traffic fines are actually executed like that?
The only risk, IMO, is if the device is visible outside the vehicle (like the example in the video) and you get pulled over on another matter and the cop is looking to "pad the bill".
(Under the old "broken window" philosophy they should track down every partial or obscured plate, on the chance that the car was used in other crimes, but these days they seem more driven by revenue maximisation.)
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
While the photog owns copyright in asny pictures taken, the subjects of the photo also have rights. Why else do newsies get signed releases?
Once you discover a undesireable photo, why not send a DMCA takedown notice to the offending site (Facebook?)
The systems are not fully automated - they get screened and marginal cases are thrown out
Red light cameras are fully automated, and earns most of the money on "missed yellow by 200 milliseconds". It takes a picture of your car entering intersection on red, and the case is no longer marginal. This is where the beer cooler would come handy to defeat this money-collection system, at least after dark.
You won't need a strobe light. Just make sure everyone brings one of these things. The cascade of flashes will blind everyone ;-)
... it be moronic and socially clueless to bring a DSLR to a night club...
You are lacking data. The bar owner pays me to shoot the bands and guests. Thus I'm invited, and people want me to photograph them because I make them look a lot better than their friend's iWhatever.
Place nail here >+
Former Iowa State Cyclone basketball coach might still be married and working at Iowa State had he had this product. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/507716-the-biggest-party-animals-in-sports/page/5
Plus all this crap about toting around a D700 everywhere, seriously a bag with extra batteries and you lenses and you're looking at a good 20 pounds of crap. Few photographers carry that kind of gear everywhere because it sucks to lug it all around.
It does suck to lug around all that weight, but sometimes that is the price you have to pay to get the results I'm after. A D700 and 24mm f/1.4 lens is about 4.25 lbs, and a D700/MB10/85mm f/1.4 is just under five lbs. With one on each shoulder, I'm carrying about 9 lbs. I don't need any other cards or batteries, since I have an entire spare camera.
And I'm way better off then those guys carrying heavy pro zooms and flashes.
Place nail here >+
Or you could just stop on yellow like you're supposed to.
Stop breaking the law.
Eat the rich.
I am allowed to enter the intersection on yellow. I have not heard of a jurisdiction where this is not so. By making yellow extra-short my city rakes in some extra $
Only if it is impossible for you to stop. You can't treat the yellow as an extended green, it's a grace period so you don't run the red because the light changed 1/10th of a second before you entered the intersection.
I am very well aware that some cities have put in extra-short yellow times, that needs to stop. But so does the perception that you have to "catch the yellow" by speeding up. If you're speeding up to catch it, you should have stopped instead.
Eat the rich.