A laser beam against paparazzi on Abramovich’s new yacht.
Relax, this is no gossip about the Russian tycoon’s private life, after all what you are reading is a technology oriented blog!
Those of you who actually follow the latest gossip news, though, might be familiar with the fact that the owner of Chelsea Football Club is waiting for delivery of his Eclipse, that is, the biggest privately owned yacht on Earth, as well as, obviously, the most expensive (and could it be any different when talking about him?).
Among the endless array of gadgets and signs of opulence, it features an impressive list of security systems, ranging from an armored master bedroom to an anti missile system, to state-of-the-art systems against audio eavesdropping and interception. To protect himself against intrusions of paparazzi, the oligarch is installing a revolutionary system, capable of detecting the presence of digital cameras within its range, and disabling them with a laser beam which makes them temporarily useless, without destroying them.
By doing this, any spy photos would be lost. The anti-paparazzi system would not be permanently active, so the fortunate guests on board of Eclipse could take snapshots of their holidays, but if the security personnel see a suspicious boat, they would immediately activate it. It would then detect the digital camera’s CCD sensor, and send a laser beam towards it, which would erase the camera’s memory.
For paparazzi trying to capture images of Red Rom with his girlfriend or powerful friends, hard times are a-coming. Unless they decide to go back to an old faithful reflex camera, which would have nothing to fear from a laser beam…
