I Would Patent This Idea…

…but I want it spread far and wide.

First, this (via South Park Pundit):

DIY Phone-Activated Camera-Blinding Laser

Now that China’s taken point on sticking surveillance cameras pretty much everywhere, we’re going to start seeing all sorts of fun projects to disable them, all of questionable legality. This impressive setup is a cellphone-controlled laser, which can render a security camera useless from afar. Simply set the laser up pointing at the camera(s) of your choice, then give the connected phone a call when you need to not be seen.

Now, instead of using a low-powered laser sight, use THIS:

Turn a flashlight into a handheld burning laser

DIYer Kipkay extracts the laser from a DVD burner and mounts it in a small flashlight to create a handheld laser burner that can light matches and burst balloons. Hit the play button to see how he did it. This project isn’t for the faint of heart: it involves pretty specialized components and soldering, but that’ll all be worth it when you’re camping with your pals and you start the fire by pointing your homemade handheld laser at the tinder.

That would absolutely be powerful enough to fry the CCD chip in a digital video camera. (Also your retinas and probably your corneas, so don’t torment your cat with one of these.)

Used with a mirror, I bet you could fry security and speed cameras with little to no chance of being identified. This beats the hell out of “necklacing” them.

I wonder how long it will be before they start registering DVD burners in England?

UPDATE: I just checked on the laser module shown in the instructions. This is what I found at the site:

It looks like a lot of people are building the laser part, anyway.