[mdlug] OT - IR jamming

[Raymond McLaughlin]

Aaron Kulkis wrote:
> Dave Arbogast wrote:
>> I was just in DC with my top of the line SLR digital camera. I was in 
>> the right place at the right time to take photos of a motorcade entering 
>> the big house. I was about 12 feet from them and 16 feet from the inter 
>> gate as it opened. (I shot for several newspapers in the day, so you 
>> could say I'm not am amateur.)
>>
>> OK, shoot, shoot, shoot.  Daylight, immediate response pro camera. 
>> What's the problem ?  This was a high raking official as the tailing 
>> S.S. Tahoe had the back 3 windows open and 3 armored soldiers with 
>> fingers on their machine guns. Yes, they gave me the evil eye for trying 
>> to take their photo from 4 meters, but my camera refused to take their 
>> photo.... it took many photos minutes before they arrived and many more 
>> minutes after the iron gates closed behind them.
>>
>> The only explanation is IR / RF  jamming of my system. I wish I had gone 
>> to manual focus as I do often, but I have never held down the shutter 
>> release with no result.  The guys following up the rear were too cool. 
>> None of the other motorcades we saw that day had the heavy artillery 
>> exposed in the trailing SUV ready to fire.
> 
> Very interesting.  It could be IR jamming the IR system.
> 
> Alternate theory: have you ever noticed how the definition of
> a Class C consumer electronics device states, "this device
> *MUST* accept interference causing unwanted operation."
> 
> I've seen this even on my top of the line HP calculators.
> 

Though I'm too lazy to look up a link, I remember a year and a half, to
two years age thee were a few articles about new anti-camera technology
being used at high tech trade shows. It involved a sophisticated lens
detection system that recognized the aperture of a camera lens (or the
"black body" behind it). This camera detector was coupled was coupled
with a very bright, precisely directed strobe that blinded any cameras
detected.