Laser pointers and CCTV

[Stanleymonkey]

A place near me was done over and the culprit disabled each camera in turn with a laser pointer.

Is that all it takes? I'm not planning a bank - but this seems a very simple way to knock out a camera.

Is it permanent damage? Or do the camera sensors recover after a few minutes?

What do people think? Or does anyone have experience or knowledge of this?

 

[NazNomad]

Is it permanent damage? Or do the camera sensors recover after a few minutes?

Yes... and yes.

It depends on the camera really, and the strength of the laser. It'll either blind the camera by creating a very bright spot on the CCD or it'll actually burn the circuitry, effectively killing the camera.

Temporary camera blindness is more common with the sort of pointers you can buy on FleaBay.

 

[manglitter]

Is it permanent damage? Or do the camera sensors recover after a few minutes?

Yes... and yes.

It depends on the camera really, and the strength of the laser. It'll either blind the camera by creating a very bright spot on the CCD or it'll actually burn the circuitry, effectively killing the camera.

Temporary camera blindness is more common with the sort of pointers you can buy on FleaBay.

Although some laser pointers that have been seen on Fleabay seem to be ridiculously over powered!

 

[NazNomad]

Although some laser pointers that have been seen on Fleabay seem to be ridiculously over powered!

Hang on!!!!!

You mean that 50 Gigawatt laser I bought on ebay, you know, the NASA-spec one that they shipped from China... might not actually be what they say it is? :-O

 

[manglitter]

If you are an evil genius hell-bent on destroying the moon, I would suggest that you may be better off building your own laser than buying off ebay.........

 

[MrDavidRoberts]

wow this is something totally new to me.
On what kind of cameras does this works?

 

[CHJ]

wow this is something totally new to me.
On what kind of cameras does this works?

Your Eyes for one.

 

[graduate_owner]

I wonder what would happen if the camera had a protective screen made out of a two way mirror(?) - the sort we see on TV police station interview rooms. The camera could still see out, but the laser beam would be reflected, but hopefully not straight back in the face of the thief !!!!


K

 

[Claymore]

someone was fined £3000 and 40 days in the nick recently for pointing a laser at a plod helicopter near Glasgow, apparently the pilot suffered burnt retinas.......wait until they put lasers on drones!

 

[graduate_owner]

Pointing a laser at an aircraft has to be one of the most mind bogglingly stupid things to do - ever. Unless you happen to be at war and the aircraft is an enemy target.

K

 

[John Brown]

There's not really such a thing as a two-way mirror. As far as I know, it's an illusion created by using semi-silvered glass and having a significant lighting differential, i.e. light up the line up, observe from the dark side.

 

[MusicMan]

There is a very obscure and not very practical way. You have a tube with polarising filters at each end, and a chemical solution (say) in the tube that rotates the plane of polarised light, say by 45 degrees to the right. Set the angle between the polars as 45 degrees, and the light goes through one way. But reverse the direction of light, the chemical still rotates the polarisation to the right but the optics needs it to rotate to the left going this way.

45 degrees may be far more than is possible and the tube might have to be very long, but I was fascinated by this when hearing it in an undergraduate chemistry lecture, with the throwaway line that it was the only way to really make a one way optical transmission. John Brown is correct, the police interview rooms rely on differential illumination.

Anyway, the light from the laser pointer is going the same direction as the light from the objects that the CCDTV is imaging, so it wouldn't help!

Keith

 

[RogerP]

Pointing a laser at an aircraft has to be one of the most mind bogglingly stupid things to do - ever. Unless you happen to be at war and the aircraft is an enemy target.

K

Pointing a laser at an aircraft (or any moving vehicle for that matter) should be treated as attempted mass murder and the perpetrator punished accordingly.

 

[graduate_owner]

I agree.
These days the perpetrator could expect a serious talking to, there is even the risk of a slapped wrist ( or is that a breach of peoples' human rights now?)

K

 

[mindthatwhatouch]

Pointing a laser pointer at an aircraft is classed as a criminal offence (rightly so). Endangering an aircraft is taken extremely seriously by the authorities.

Attacks are on the increase, unfortunately I fear it's only a matter of time before there is an accident.

If you think the prison sentence in Glasgow area was steep. http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/fl ... a/6330661/

UK Civil Aviation Authority is calling to ban high powered laser pointers in public.
http://www.laserpointersafety.com/news/ ... caa.php#on