I viewed this story on Wired and I thought I would share It with you. First off, this invention is dangerous to anyone who loves photography and the freedom of art. Imagine going somewhere and taking a snapshot. Maybe you went to the aquarium, maybe a rock show. Later, when you view your pictures their is some kind of watermark which was never there before. This my friends is the Fulgurator. The device is a modified camera -- in this case, an old manual Minolta SLR. A flashgun fires through the camera in reverse, from the back. The flash picks up the image of a slide inside and projects it out through the lens and onto any surface.The trick is in the triggering. The Fulgurator lies in wait until an unsuspecting photographer takes a picture using a flash. When the device's sensor sees this flash, it fires its own unit, throwing up an image which is captured by the hapless photographer's camera while remaining unseen by the naked eye. Now, imagine for a moment that an ad agency gets hold of this. You couldn't take a photograph of a tourist attraction or anything or a certain area ever again if they used these without worrying that some marketing crap or watermark would be pushed into your camera.
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/06/exclusive-inter.html
1 comment:
Ive seen the so-called Fulgurator when it won its prize at ARS Electronica. Its total crap. The most interesting thing it reveals is the how little people understand technology. Even as Julius Von Bismarck was attempting to demonstrate it live, he had to ask members in the audience not to use their cameras as the flashes would stop it working. His well-practiced girlfriend managed to eventually capture an image which had been modified. Another intersting point is that the 'fulgurated' image of Obama which is being touted to support his 'Guerilla' tactics never turned up anywhere in the press.. could it be that no-one elses images were manipulated?
The 'device' is dependant on so many variables: Timing, recharge of flash unit, direction of sensor, exposure time of 'target camera', the fact that it needs to be dark... the list goes on.
Julius Von Bismarck (of Otto fame) claims he is going to patent his technology - well, sorry Julius, Cameras, Flash Bulbs, Projectors and Light Sensors are all patented.
I fail to understand why this is groundbreaking since it is basically a projector...and one that doesnt work very well either.
I have an invention too... it draws temporary graffiti on buidlings by stealth... its called 'OHP-Inside-A-Wig'.
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