hobbes wrote:
Gizmo wrote:
off-topic (sort of) I went through a mobile unit the other day at around 9:00PM. It was total dark. I wonder what the video would show. They must just aim between the head lights and hope for the best....

Are the videos using visible light? - 'cos if you're accidently lit up like a christmas tree with side, dip, main & fogs SURELY it would obscure the plate due to the enormous amount of light flooding into the camera & it attempting to compensate (closing aperture) would / should render the 'darker' sections unuasable without resorting to severe image processing, or it may cause massive amounts of lens flare. Just a thought....
This one is easy, and the technology simple and years old!
NASA wished to photograph the rocket exhaust in a early ATLAS rocket, AND view the control surfaces to correlate the effects produced.
A slow 32 ASA film rating showed the flame clearly, but was toodark to see the surfaces.
200 ASA rating film showed the control surfaces, and captured the movement of the rocket, but the exhaust flame "burned out" on the film.
They simply sandwhiched three emulsions, of differeing speeds, which could be developed as coloured layers, which could be printed using corresponding filters to show highlight detail, AND shadow detail all in one exposure through one lens.
With video, a beam splitter sent the image to three vidicon tubes, of three sensitivities, achieving the same result.
Now with micro chip arrays, AND software, viewing a numberplate between two exceedingly bright light sources is no problem at all.
You no longer need an aperture to control brightness, as an electronic aperture will achieve the same result. However an aperture is still desirable because of it's effects on focusing and depth of field.
Infra red is like visible light, in that it comes in a range of frequencies.
Those nearer to visible light will record similar information from numberplate materials as visble light, so it will "see" and record changes in "brightness, as visible light does.
To fool an infra red camera, a numberplate would have to have light and dark materials (in visible light) with IDENTICAL infra red reflective/absorption properties at the frequency being employed in the detection system.