So, you don’t want your picture taken, eh? Seems like Hewlett-Packard has gotten a patent on something that will allow you to prevent people from taking your picture. It’s detailed here.

In short, it will be a way for someone to tell the camera “Hey, I don’t want my picture taken”. This is an intersting concept. Obviously, it would only work with newer digital cameras, and people set up to block them. While it is set up as a privacy issue (presumably to stop the practice of upskirting. However, I can see it being used in other ways.

If adapted properly (or improperly depending on your point of view), it might allow the MPAA to finally put a serious crimp in people taking camcorders into movie theatres. I can also see it being abused by lawyers and pro sports teams.. “You can’t have your own pictures of the team and the players, you have to buy our $6 official versions”.

I wonder if the usual folks (Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the ACLU) will have anything to say about this.