A clear plastic bulletproof shell, secured to the ground from the inside, to protect a protester with a video camera recording civil rights violations that are carried out by police. Modern peaceful protests use video cameras to document such violations, but those recording are often pushed out or arrested during a protest. It may also be possible to design this to fit onto a standard manhole cover, ensuring that police can't remove you without very strong or specialized tools.-- Worldgineer, Mar 22 2005 Consequence of common cameras https://xkcd.com/1235/As mentioned in the first anno, lots of cheap cameras make it easy to ensure the bad cops get recorded. But that's not the only consequence.... [Vernon, May 11 2016] The sentiment is good, but I suspect the way of the future is many small, inexpensive cameras, rather than one large one. Much the way a government surveils it's citizenry.
A can of spray paint would render this device useless.-- normzone, Mar 22 2005 Hadn't thought of the spray paint. Solution: a coating of clear oil. This would both allow for easy cleaning (another protestor with a towel or spinning windshield wiper), and would make any removal attempt more difficult.-- Worldgineer, Mar 22 2005 "Many small cameras"...interconnected wirelessly, recording in a RAID like fashion so that if a protestor is lost here or there, the video can still be reconstructed.-- half, Mar 22 2005 Wishful thinking, but mildly clever. If they don't want you recording, they can just have cop #2 sit on it to block your view, or park a car over you. And carrying that turtle shell around would make you stick out as a target more than if you just discretely held a camera inside your jacket.-- sophocles, Mar 23 2005 I can see the idea now.... [ P-aparazzi I-ntegrated C-amera T-otalitarian U-ndercover R-AID E-thernet S-etup ]-- normzone, Mar 23 2005 Tear Gas-- RBStimers, Mar 23 2005 //secured to the ground from the inside// How?-- brodie, Mar 23 2005 My favorite method would be the manhole cover. Many other common city items could be used to attach this to. It could be attached to a parking curb, it could be designed to clamp onto a small tree or handrail, perhaps even a fire hydrant as long as you left the useful parts unblocked. A drill and concrete bolts could be used as well, though non-destructive means would be preferred.
[RBS] The ventilation hole could be covered from the inside.-- Worldgineer, Mar 23 2005 It sounds like something I'd like to see on the streets, but I think that a whole bunch of protesters carrying video cameraphones will probably be more successful. Especially when they work out how to do live feed from those things.
And I will attach my redundant RiotTortoise (tm) to my bike to allow me to avoid rain, and take out more pedestrians.-- moomintroll, Mar 23 2005 A camera disguised as a bit a trash, say a pop bottle.
Vacuum cups could clamp cameras to windows two or three stories above the crowd site. Radio release to recover as they fall into a gunny sack for protesters, but special trucks, poles for police to reach.
Dozens of fake shells held in place sticky tape. Handed out to the crowd to place where and when they choose. Would provide camouflage for real ones.
I suppose cell phones with cameras have made this whole class of cameras more or less "overcome by events".-- popbottle, May 10 2016 Radio-controlled airplanes carrying cameras, with the pilots hiding in nearby buildings. FPV is common now, so the equipment exists. The only issue is safety when flying over a crowd.-- notexactly, May 16 2016 It turns out that the air hole covers in the Riot Tortoise will admit small but adequate quantities of gasoline.-- bungston, May 16 2016 ...to be uses as a flame thrower. I like where you're going with that.-- Worldgineer, May 18 2016 random, halfbakery