Bright lights, blind cameras: the Georgia Institute of Technology has a prototype device that researchers say may help organizations thwart industrial espionage, but critics wonder if it's feasible.(Intelligence)

Security Management, November, 2006 by Gips, Michael A.

WHAT IF you could thwart industrial espionage and other threats at a whim by using a system that could identify and neutralize digital cameras, both video and still? Sounds enticing, and it's exactly what researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have designed a prototype to do. Despite the promise of the device, however, experts in technical surveillance countermeasures (TSCM) are skeptical that it will be the best tool for the task.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The prototype consists of camera-mounted sensors, infrared light, a projector, and a computer. The infrared light is shined into a specific environment or space, and the system scans for the type of reflectivity and shape produced by digital cameras. Once the computer determines that the...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.