Digital Camera Detection and Image Disruption Using Controlled Intentional Electromagnetic Interference

Photography is becoming more and more an end-user capability, with many people having digital cameras on their mobile phones. In general, digital cameras are phasing out traditional film-based equipment. The advantages of digital photography are many: the compactness of the cameras, high reliability, ease of image processing, and transmission of the images via the internet or multimedia messaging. These processes emphasize a big problem which is the ability to photograph an object without the approval of its owner. This unsolved problem has many aspects: the right to privacy, paparazzi, industrial intelligence, and the need to protect objects which have high security sensitivity. This paper describes a method of sensing and then disrupting digital imaging by using a controlled radio frequency transmission. This method can be used in order to create a system that causes a localized malfunction of a digital camera in a specified area so that it will degrade photographic recording done by the digital camera. This method is composed of two stages: coupling the digital camera to a source of intentional electromagnetic interference and generating electromagnetic waves in a specific frequency to interfere with the correct functioning of at least one electronic component of the digital camera.