ANPR 'chaff' car wrap

ANPR or ‘Automatic Number Plate Recognition’ systems are used to enforce traffic regulations and catch felons. (I don't advocate this, it's more of a thought experiment)

The idea is to design a custom wrap pattern for your car that resembles many many standard registration plates enough to overload the ANPR algorithm. The algorithm would run out of time trying to find the actual registration plate amongst the many decoys.

The pattern could not simply be other registration plates as this would break the law. But it could be lots of collections of different sized numbers and phrases in various colours, or even shapes resembling numbers and letters.

A machine vision equivalent of chaff if you like.

This idea has been baking for some, but I was reminded of it by the recent story of the driver issued with a bus lane contravention fine due to a woman with a T shirt sporting the phrase ‘KNITTER’ walking in it. His registration was KNIG TER

It may work in other countries too with careful design.

Over time the ANPR designers might modify their algorithms to detect the car shape, thus enabling them to concentrate processing power in the actual number plate location. A further countermeasure would then be required to disguise the outline of your vehicle. A kind of automotive Ghillie suit. Which maybe be achieved by inserting polystyrene shapes under the wrap before it is heat-shrunk on. Note: this may adversely affect drive-ability and fuel economy.