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Ask Slashdot: Anti-Camera Device For Use In a Small Bus?

Paul server guy writes "I am building a limousine bus, and the owners want to prevent occupants from using cameras on board. (But they would like the cameras mounted on the bus to continue to operate; I think they would consider this optional.) They would also like to do it without having to wear any 'anti-paparazzi' clothing (because they also want to protect the other guests on board), and without destroying the cameras. (So no EMP generators, please). We've done some testing with high-power IR, but that proved ineffective. Does anyone have any ideas that they are willing to share?"

15 of 478 comments (clear)

  1. Confiscate cameras by oodaloop · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just confiscate cameras before they get on the Girls Gone Wild bus. Rich People/First World Problems.

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    1. Re:Confiscate cameras by Omega+Hacker · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think you misunderstand. This has nothing to do with the passengers not wanting their picture taken. This has *everything* to do with the jackass owner trying to ensure that nobody can take their own pictures, because I guarantee he's got a photographer onboard who's taking "professional" pictures which are sold at ludicrous prices. Have you *been* to a themepark?

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    2. Re:Confiscate cameras by Algae_94 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Have you seen the quality of photographs most people take? Being a professional photographer is still a valuable skill.

      Having any exclusive pictures is not really a thing anymore (buggy whips as you say), as well as anything involving film, but taking a very good quality picture with a good camera is still a profession.

    3. Re:Confiscate cameras by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Just drop the "professional" photog bullshit already. No one needs to pay to have their picture taken. Do you know why? Because it's not 1964 anymore, and every fucking person walks around with some kind of camera on them.

      Well, anyone can push a button to take a picture.

      I find very few people know how to set up lighting, posing, get the white balance right, have the proper aperture and/or shutter speed (if they have cameras that can control all these features) to take a properly exposed image for a pro look.

      Once that is done, how many avg. folks know how to or would even bother to learn the software out there needed to post process the images to get what would generally be considered a professional image?

      Sure, everyone on earth has cameras with them leaps ahead of what used to be available only to pros, however....they still don't know how to use them to get the images that are of quality that is on the level that people make a living taking and selling.

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    4. Re:Confiscate cameras by mopower70 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      All that effort to protect what has become a job selling buggy whips.

      Just drop the "professional" photog bullshit already. No one needs to pay to have their picture taken. Do you know why? Because it's not 1964 anymore, and every fucking person walks around with some kind of camera on them.

      Like I said, selling fucking buggy whips.

      Yes, and everyone walks around with some kind of writing tool on them and thinks they're an author too. The unreadable dreck that has turned the self-pub market into a steaming shit-pile makes it very clear that people like you are the ones doing it. Photography is art. Just because you have a tool that is capable of creating art, doesn't mean the person wielding it is, anymore than the billions of people with computers that can run a compiler are capable of writing a useful application.

  2. Some requests should be ignored by janeuner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Can anyone come up with a sensible reason to implement such a thing?

  3. Advice? give up. by green1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You want to have your own cameras capturing everything on board, but you want to prevent your guests from doing the same.
    Best advice is to stop being a dick.

    People use limousine buses for special events and parties. These are the times people most want to remember and are likely to want to take their own pictures. Preventing them from doing so (even if it were possible, which in your stated scenario seems dubious) would be a pretty dick move.

  4. Slashdot continues to get worse by cide1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This article is yet another confirmation that Slashdot just gets worse and worse. I hate to troll, but come on guys, up the quality some.

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  5. you mean behavior control device? by AndroSyn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Really, what you want is a behavior control device, not a anti-camera device. Seriously, what the fuck? Why shouldn't people be allowed to take photos on the bus? What do they have to hide? If people want to take photos of each other on the bus, why shouldn't they?

    I reject your fascist attempts at controlling others, as should others as well. In short fuck you and fuck beta.

  6. Re:Makes no sense. by BasilBrush · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To do so whilst reserving the ability of the limo owners cameras to work is unreasonable, and doesn't deserve any suggestions.

  7. Technical solution for a social problem by wired_parrot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You're asking for a technical solution to a social/political problem. The only feasible solution is to make sure your policy is clearly explained and understood to all who board the limo-bus, and then strictly enforcing it by expelling anyone caught with a camera. Sure, you won't be able to monitor people 100% of the time, but if you're strict with enforcement people won't risk taking snapshots. It will probably be more effective than any technical solution which would be expensive and easily circumvented.

    And if the owners of the limo-bus are really that worried about photos onboard, the simplest solution would be for everyone to deposit their electronic devices into a bag, and they can then recover their devices after leaving the limo-bus.

    My guess though is that your policy is likely to lose your limo-bus company customers, so the owners better make sure whether enforcing it is worth the cost.

  8. Re:Makes no sense. by msauve · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's some rock stars who want to be able to tape the orgies for their own viewing, but don't want pictures of themselves showing up on the Internet.

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  9. Treat em like dirt by wiredlogic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So basically you want to treat your customers like dirt. I'm sure your business will find all the success it deserves.

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  10. Beware the client with a solution by Rob+the+Bold · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First off, as the subject says: beware of a customer/client who comes to you with "I've come up with this great solution that I'd like you to apply to this problem." Because, for one thing, they've already taken you out of the brainstorming, refining ideas and feasibility phases -- and since they've come to you, it's out of their area of expertise, so those steps probably weren't exactly done in an expert manner. There's a good chance that you won't get such a thing to work, then you're gonna have a problem getting paid for basically proving that it was a bad idea. Because workable or not, you're still gonna have spent your time and resources on it.

    Secondly, this sounds like something way outside the core business of a party-bus sort of service. Because really, a selective photography-denial device would have a considerably bigger market than just protecting the interests of the owners of a rolling disco/bar/whorehouse/whatever. Who wouldn't want what is essentially a cloaking device? That business would dwarf whatever racket they're in now.

    I'd tell them no, or direct them to a security device vendor instead. But if you really want to try anyway, maybe get them to pay for a "feasibility study" or something like that. It won't cost them nearly as much as a failed project, but you won't have to turn away business that you might need.

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  11. Re:Makes no sense. by JamieIanMacgregor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    it sounds like they want to make a bangbus style porno and invite people for the ride, so they can film it but the guests cannot.