• Carmakazi@piefed.social
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    14 days ago

    Didn’t Mythbusters test all of these covers and coatings in like 2004 and basically none of them worked against a traffic cam of that era?

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      It’ll pretty much only do anything against a camera using a flash in the dark and even then that’s probably only marginal. In normal daytime illumination everyone and every thing will still be able to see your plate just fine.

      I think I’d rather get a color e-ink display from China and mount it in a fake license plate frame, with a microcontroller behind it displaying a random assortment of plate styles and numbers as you drive along. If you see the 5-0, flip a the switch to lock it to your real plate number until they go away.

    • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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      14 days ago

      You would need a mix of IR absorbing material and IR reflective material like what they use in Zenni ID guard glasses.

      An easier way to go about it would just be to install a bright IR light pointed at your plate, it would create a glare that would make it impossible for the camera to read.

      I have an IR scope for one of my rifles and thought it would be a bright idea to install a IR flashlight to help boost the field of vision… The flashlight I got was so bright that it just tuned the whole image white.

      So there are things that would work, but it would probably get you in more trouble than anything. It’s illegal in every state to attempt to obscure your tags from being tracked in any way.

      • Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        This is my right. It’d be pretty simple to install a small ring of IR LED around your plate and wire them into the car lights and a back up battery in the trunk. Basically keep it glowing 24/7. Probably like, 30 bucks in hardware from Ali to start from scratch.

        Kind of wonder what it’d be like to frame he whole car in it. Like a ghostly kia soul.

        • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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          14 days ago

          Might be a way to get around the intentional blocking of your plate. If you installed a bright enough IR light bar on the roof of your car pointing down the front and back… You would probably just show up as a moving block of light, might not even be recognized as a car by the AI.

    • danc4498@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      I’m willing to bet if it did do something useful, you would just make yourself a target for frequent stops by cops.

      • urushitan 漆たん@kakera.kintsugi.moe
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        14 days ago

        And the flocks are IR cameras, so better would be broadcasting a ton of IR light around your license plate. That being said, the camera also looks for type/size of rims and tires, window tint, visible damage, bumper stickers, dirt level, so while your license plate blocking may stop it from looking you up it won’t stop it from tracking where you’re going

      • isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        14 days ago

        I just cover my entire car with flexible screens and cameras. The image from one side of the car is displayed on the images of the other side of the car. Can’t track a car if you can’t even tell a car is there at all! I’m sure this will have absolutely no downsides whatsoever.

    • lol_idk@piefed.social
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      14 days ago

      If you want to beat camera that flash, set up a camera flash in slave mode pointing at your plate. It will overexpose it

  • turtlesareneat@piefed.ca
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    14 days ago

    The foolproof solution is to sneak up to the camera, at night, with no electronics on your person, and shoot the fucking thing down.

  • RoidingOldMan@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    What the cops in NYC do is they wedge a leaf in the plate frame, so there’s always a leaf partially blocking 1 letter.

  • Deme@sopuli.xyz
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    14 days ago

    The cameras will track you anyways. You’ll just get tagged as “2003 Honda civic, gray, license plates unreadable…” along with a descriptive list of any stickers on the back of the car.

  • ramble81@lemmy.zip
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    14 days ago

    Flock also captures WiFi and Bluetooth MAC addresses and IMEI for cell signals. Even if they don’t get a license plate if your car has wireless CarPlay or Android Auto, if you’re connected via Bluetooth, if you have an in car hotspot, or if you have any connected services (remote start, phone app, traffic), they can track you by that.

    A license plate is no longer the only identifying piece of information.

    • Monument@piefed.world
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      14 days ago

      As a person with modest theoretical knowledge and low practical experience in the matter (read: this might be an utterly bullshit idea), I kind of want to make a “Bluetooth shotgun” that responds to any AWK packets with a slew of spoofed info.
      If such a thing were possible, I would then make it also listen for responses, and log them with a geolocation. I would then spoof those responses every time an awk was received around that area. (This is because nonsense data can be filtered to reveal just the real responses - my device(s), but inaccurate real data would destroy the value of the surveillance.)

      Editing to add - lots of considerations. I wouldn’t want to just attack random people’s home equipment that’s seeking to pair. Maybe it only blasts out a bunch of responses when it’s an undirected advertisement or the advertisement has a MAC that corresponds to spying companies,

      • ramble81@lemmy.zip
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        14 days ago

        Some yes. Some no. Most of the the WiFi and BT can, but the car IMEI, usually no unless you yank the fuse/module.

        Now even if you disable your car stuff. It can still track those same things for your personal phone. Have an Apple or Google Watch, Bluetooth is enabled. Little things like that, which make it worse because now instead of tracking a car, they’re tracking people/personal devices.

      • Janx@piefed.social
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        14 days ago

        Sure. In the same way that you technically don’t have to have a phone, tablet, or computer to participate in the modem world.

  • db2@lemmy.worldBanned
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    14 days ago

    It might work at night when flashes and such are used, it won’t do anything during the day. It would also require frequent reapplication.

    You’d be better off using a sbc to design a tracking system that can identify flock camera lenses and blast them with a green laser pointer, a laser pointer which of course isn’t in any way driven beyond design parameters because that would be illegal.

    • Carmakazi@piefed.social
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      14 days ago

      Anything that can reliably hold a laser on a small camera lens when mounted to a moving vehicle, or even identify cameras in the first place, is Lockheed Martin-level stuff, this is crazy talk. Just mount a Trophy ADS to my Subaru real quick.