How to protect yourself from CCTV cameras

How to hide numbers from video cameras

Motorists around the world have been making attempts to deceive video cameras on highways since the technology for video recording of speed limit violations appeared. At the same time, new methods are being invented not only by malicious violators, but also by completely law-abiding drivers, since fines for speeding are growing every year, and the number of incorrect decisions and outright mistakes made is not decreasing, and it is often necessary to prove that there was no violation, where the camera “saw” him.

It would seem that everything is simple: the camera uses radar and records the speed of the car on a certain section of the road. If it detects a violation of the speed limit, the infrared or laser caller ID is turned on, after which a photograph is taken, and the data on the traffic violation is sent to the nearest stationary traffic police post or directly to the Traffic Police Administrative Offenses Recording Center (TSAFAP). There, the information is processed and the violating driver is sent a “chain letter” by mail with photographic data and a requirement to pay a fine for exceeding the speed limit.

Thus, it is enough just to make sure that the video camera cannot read the license plate of the car in order to avoid penalties. All that remains is to choose one of the most effective ways to hide the number, and the issue is resolved. But everything is simple only in theory, but in practice, most methods of making up signs do not work and are considered criminal. What is it about?

Ways to make a number invisible to video cameras

Today, video cameras for recording traffic violations on the roads can already do a lot: they detect speeding, improper parking, improper driving on the side of the road, violations when crossing the stop line and traffic at a pedestrian crossing, crossing a double solid line and driving into the oncoming lane. In the near future, the developers also promise to “teach” cameras to recognize the color, make, model and individual characteristics of a car.

These abilities will reduce the number of video camera errors, but for now the main way to identify an offender is to read the license plate. When the radar detects a violation of the rules, it sends an infrared or laser beam that is reflected from the surface of the sign, identifies it and produces it along with a video recording. All that remains is to manually check the sign and find the owner of the car using the database.

If it is impossible to count the sign, the entire system is useless: if there is no sign, it is impossible to identify and punish the violator. Therefore, making the license plate “invisible” is the driver’s main task, and many methods for hiding signs have been invented in recent years, although they all violate the law. According to it, the number should be standard and clearly visible from a distance of 20 meters.

What methods do motorists most often use to fool a video camera? How effective and reliable are they?

Simple but illegal changes to license plates

To deceive the IFC indicator of a video camera, there is a simple and, oddly enough, effective technology: the number must be distorted so that the equipment cannot accurately identify it. There are several simple techniques for this:

Pasting numbers with a sheet of wood or paper

This method works, and the camera may not identify the number. However, for reliability, it is advisable to seal not one, but several numbers or letters of the number, and the leaf must have the density and thickness of a sheet of cardboard to stop the IR ray. In addition, if the camera does not “read” the number, it will be clearly visible to the traffic police inspectors who service the video equipment.

Covering the license plate with polymer film

A special self-adhesive polymer film, on the reflective surface of which a number is printed, usually does not raise questions from State Traffic Inspectorate employees (a close examination of the surface of the sign is necessary), and should reflect the IR indication of the video camera, illuminating the sign for identification. This is indeed possible, but only in the case when the infrared beam is applied to the surface of the sign at a certain angle. The rest of the time, the sign is easily readable by the equipment.

Using a second license plate

The second license plate is mounted in front above the first in the hope that the video camera will not detect the main plate or will do it incorrectly. However, numerous tests also show that this method does not work - the viewfinder “knows” where the sign should be on the car.

Upside down sign

One of the few really working ways to deceive a video camera: the IR sensor records the sign as unreadable. But the incorrect location of the number is clearly visible to traffic inspectors, who will stop you and immediately fine you.

Changing the relief of the room

Another more or less reliable way to prevent the video camera from identifying the license plate. It is enough to flatten the characters on the sign without damaging the paint coating, and the viewfinder will not be able to read them.

Dirt on the room

There are several options: it can be natural dirt (moisten the surface of the license plate with syrup and drive along a dusty road or dip the license plate into a snowdrift), or artificial dirt - it comes in different colors in cans: spray it on and go. The camera will not be able to identify such a number, but the first traffic police inspector will fine you for the fact that the number is not visually readable. By the way, the fine for a dirty room is minimal - only 500 rubles.

Putty, gel

A working option, but the products must be colorless and applied in several layers. Several symbols on the sign should be painted over. The number will become invisible to the camera, but the TsAFAP operator will be able to see it, where the camera automatically sends numbers that it cannot determine. If the inspectors notice manipulations to hide the number, you will face a fine of 5,000 rubles, and it will not be possible to quickly remove the film from the sign in the field.

Use of technical means

Modern “craftsmen” and manufacturers of car accessories are constantly developing technical means for hiding license plates from video camera indicators. These means are for the most part invisible to the naked eye, and do not raise suspicions of a deliberate offense on the part of the driver (the license plate is clean and visible from 20 meters, which is not punishable), but some of them are ineffective or do not work at all.

The number is placed in two frames of a complex design, which supposedly generates and defocuses infrared rays coming from the video camera. Externally, no changes are visible on the sign, and it is allegedly impossible to read the number. It won't be possible to punish you for such tricks, but tests show that modern video cameras cope with the task without any particular difficulties.

An old way to hide the readability of a license plate: changes are not visible externally - the sign is readable at a distance of up to 20 meters and traffic police officers should not have any questions for you. The camera cannot read it correctly - the lens distorts the symbols on the surface of the number.

Here the calculation is that the number is clearly visible to the human eye, but creates problems for the IR beam, since the thin metal of the mesh itself screens. However, the net is visible at close range and is prohibited by law.

Curtain frames and flip frames

A simple mechanical design that closes the sign for identification upon command from the driver from the passenger compartment, or turns it upside down. The device is effective, but it can be easily identified by a video camera operator or a TsAFAP inspector. It is very doubtful that you will be allowed to ride for a long time with such devices with impunity.

Sloping blinds

The number is mounted in a special mechanical device at a slight angle from which the camera cannot read it. The remedy is effective, but if it is discovered by traffic police inspectors, they will fine you not only for hiding the license plate number, but also for making unauthorized changes to the design of the car.

Embedding an infrared radiation source

The camera detects the license plate on a car using infrared illumination. If you direct an oncoming IR beam at it, you can try to “illuminate the viewfinder. To do this, several symbols are erased in the number itself, then they are sprayed with black paint again, and special light bulbs with radiation invisible to the eye are built into the frame. Externally, the number looks as usual, but the number cannot be accurately determined. This is an expensive set of accessories for hiding a sign, which, as experience shows, can only be “deceived” by the most primitive video cameras.

Built-in magnet

A powerful electric magnet can be attached to the standard plastic frame that holds the license plate. A piece of sheet metal is attached to the top of the number, which is attracted to the surface and prevents cameras from reading the number. As soon as traffic police inspectors appear on the horizon, the magnet turns off, the iron “unsticks” and falls away.

Thus, all methods of hiding license plates from video recording cameras are essentially illegal, and most of them are expensive and ineffective. Modern video cameras can overcome almost any disguise, and where technology is powerless, there are traffic police inspectors who solve the problem by visual means.

In addition, even if you manage to hide the number and prevent the camera from identifying it, and the traffic police inspectors will not have any complaints against you regarding the readability of the number from a distance of 20 meters, there is always Article 12.2, Part 2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, which reads: vehicle control with license plates equipped with the use of materials that prevent or complicate their identification will entail a fine of 5,000 rubles or deprivation of a driver's license for 1-3 months.

It’s much easier to simply not break the speed limit so that you don’t have to hide from video cameras, and then you won’t face either fines for speeding or fines for fraudulent actions.

24 honest ways to fool video cameras

Open tests of common video recording cameras took place at the Moscow Raceway, where representatives of public organizations were invited, including the well-known Blue Buckets. Four complexes resisted the inventive “violators” - “Strelka”, “Avtouragan”, “Cordon” and “Krechet”. Naturally, the greatest attention was focused on Strelka, which in recent years has filled the roads of Moscow and the Moscow region. The principle of operation of all types of cameras is the same - measuring instantaneous speed; they differ only in technical subtleties.

masters of disguise

Technologies of deception

Among the ways to deceive the cameras were both standard ones, such as covering part of the license plate with a piece of paper, and very unusual ones, for example, a second false registration plate attached to the radiator grille. By the way, he still failed to deceive any of the systems - they all accurately identified the required number. But they couldn’t cope with the upside-down camera number - it was immediately classified as unreadable. True, such extreme ingenuity in real conditions can end badly at the very first traffic police post - you will have to pay a fine for unreadable numbers.

The main disappointment for car owners may be that the most common way to avoid a fine - a leaf pasted onto one of the symbols of the license plate (it does not matter whether it is a maple leaf or a sheet of paper) is completely useless. The fact is that all cameras are equipped with special infrared emitters, and a thin barrier in the form of a leaf is not a hindrance for them. But something thicker, for example, cardboard, can already resist the “probing” rays.

masters of disguise

The video recording systems were unable to identify those numbers in which at least one symbol was painted over or discolored (this was done with ordinary putty), as well as those on which the relief was destroyed. Cameras are powerless in these cases, even though the human eye can easily identify the number. However, the problem will most likely be solved when an employee of the information processing center gets down to business, because that is where numbers are sent in which the camera cannot recognize just one character.

masters of disguise

According to the test results, all cameras turned out to be almost equally unprepared to completely overcome the disguise of license plates, which drivers sometimes resort to, and lost with a score of 10:14.

Work on mistakes

According to camera developers who were present at the tests, all identified deficiencies in their systems are planned to be eliminated in the near future. So, they want to teach cameras to distinguish the color, make, and possibly model of a car, then if there is “doubt” about a particular license plate, the system will be able to check all possible options in the database and select the right one. In addition, the work of operators who double-check camera readings will be organizationally improved.

masters of disguise

The developers considered the main problem to be poor maintenance of video systems. The same “Strelki” simply rarely wash, because of this, over time they begin to record the number incorrectly or go completely blind. Therefore, it is proposed to legislate the need to maintain automatic violation recording systems.

Sergey Nastin , editor:

Sergey Nastin

- Yes, tests have shown that technologies are imperfect and can be deceived. However, it is unlikely that anyone will dare to use such blatant tricks on the road. So drivers who have passed the tests should not take them as a call to action. Rather, they became a useful lesson for developers of control systems, showing that a computer cannot yet completely replace the human eye and brain.

It is a pity that the testing did not involve complexes that measure the average speed of the car, rather than the instantaneous speed. This could really be useful, because they are already being actively installed on the roads of Moscow and the region, but no one yet knows what to expect from them and how accurately they work.