Patent Application
20200307471
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for shielding a tag from red light camera systems. More specifically, the invention relates to a cover for a vehicle license tag made of a clear shatter resistant synthetic polyurethane covered in the inside with a polarized sheet of plastic privacy screen material similar to what is used to protect contents on computer screens from prying eyes by blocking light from being reflected back to the red light camera.
Because the camera is on a pole, it must take the photo of the vehicle from a downward angle. It is the fact that the red light camera must take the photograph from a downward angle that allows the Red Light Camera Privacy Screen to block light from being reflected from the tag.
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It is to be understood that the embodiments of the invention herein described are merely illustrative of the application of the principles of the invention. Reference herein to details of the illustrated embodiments is not intended to limit the scope of the claims, which themselves recite those features regarded as essential to the invention. The most common type of red light camera currently being employed by State and local agencies need a camera housing enclosure that is mounted on a pole. Red light camera systems typically employ two closely spaced inductive loops embedded in the pavement just before the limit line, to measure the speed of vehicles.
Using the speed measured, the system predicts if a particular vehicle will not be able to stop before entering the intersection, and takes two photographs of the event. The first photo shows the vehicle just before it enters the intersection, with the light showing red, and the second photo, taken a second or two later, shows the vehicle when it is in the intersection. Laws such as Florida Statute Sec. 316.605 provide that “all letters, numerals, printing, writing, the registration decal, and the alphanumeric designation shall be clear and distinct and free from defacement, mutilation, grease, and other obscuring matter, so that they will be plainly visible and legible at all times 100 feet from the rear or front.”
The Red Light Camera Privacy Filter results in a “clear and distinct” view of the tag so that it is “plainly visible and legible at all times 100 feet from the rear or front” so that anyone can read the registration decal, and the alphanumeric designation. Notably only when the viewing angle is greater than 30 degrees that the light blocking action of the Red Light Camera Privacy Filter takes place and the tag appears black when viewed from that angle.
The use of red light cameras is very controversial. Many motorists see it as a money making endeavor where state and local governments hire private companies that keep the majority of the revenue generated by the red light cameras with little or no oversight by government. The prior art includes efforts to attempt to defeat the red light camera by using sprays or plastic covers that claim to diffuse light to make the tag unreadable and distorted to traffic cameras when viewed at an angle. Sprays and films that claim to diffuse or distort light being reflected from a tag may or may not work depending on a combination of factors including object contrast and size, background, brightness (luminance) and structure (texture), glare produced by other light sources, distance between the image and the observer, and the time available to search for the object. The Red Light Camera Privacy Filter does away with those factors by simply blocking light altogether rather than relying upon distortion.
This application claims an invention which was disclosed in Provisional Application No. 62/763,628 filed Jun. 25, 2018, entitled “Red Light Camera Privacy Screen”. The benefit under 35 USC § 119(e) of the United States provisional application is hereby claimed, and the aforementioned application is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
