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PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 22:46 
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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.

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 22:48 
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botach wrote:
The area is bathed in infra-red light , as opposed to visible light for the naked eye.
Now if from the darkness ,using visible light , i shine a torch, the naked eye looking in is dazzled.
Wouldn't the same principle apply with infra-red??

If you mean ‘can SPECS cameras be overloaded?’ I would say yes. The SPECS cameras use CCD imagers (CMOS is less sensitive due to the relatively small active area). The data from CCD imagers are usually read from the array in a serial manner, overloading of some of these pixels can lead to ‘blooming’ of the entire row (or column) of pixels, hence effectively smearing the resultant image. A quick Google yields:

http://www.e-z.net/~haworth/ccd/blooming.html

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PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 21:54 
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Smeggie - a technical idea - since optical electronics is not my field, merely a side issue - nice thought though - how to put specs out of the picture - thought the SCP would soon have cars out looking for the culprits to make more money


However , a paintball gun would be a good substitute :twisted:

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 16:08 
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SPECs may be able to see you in the dark but you may not see them in the dark. We've had several SPECs enforced stretches on the M2 lately along roadworks 50mph limit. They are painted yellow but for some reason its not reflective paint. In the dark they are invisible until a few yards away.


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