Japan Theaters fighting Piracy…with Light!?
Movie theaters in Japan will prepare a new technology to prevent piracy, this time with IR light!
A new method for preventing pirates from recording films at movie theaters was unveiled by the National Institute of Informatics on Thursday.
The institute, in co-operation with Sharp, has developed a technique to render any recording unwatchable by flashing pulses of infra-red (IR) light from behind the cinema screen. The pulses pass through tiny holes in the screen originally designed to allow through sound, and cause interference to any video cameras held by members of the audience. The IR light, while invisible to human eyes, is also impossible to filter out without rendering the recording too blurry to watch. The team says best results are achieved at a speed of 10 pulses per second.
The technique was developed by a team led by Associate Professor Isao Echizen, who tested the effects of various wavelengths of invisible light on video cameras.
“It’s a cheap, easy to install and effective method of prevention. We’re looking at widespread implementation in two to three years,” said Echizen.
Films screened at cinemas are already digitally watermarked to prevent them from being copied digitally, but there has been no way of reliably stopping pirates from recording films using video cameras.
The damage caused by bootleg film recordings is estimated at around 3 billion dollars a year, according to the American Film Institute, compounded by advances in camera technology resulting in better quality recordings, and the spread of video camera-equipped cell phones and Internet video sharing sites.
Source: Mainichi / Image Source
Well, lets see what technology the “pirates” can use now against this.
Crayon Shinchan creator’s death confirmed!
The worst news for Crayon Shinchan’s fans is real.
The police confirmed the body found 120 meters below Tomoiwa cliff is Crayon Shinchan’s creator, Usui Yoshito. The police also found his broken digital camera, his shoes and backpack as well confirming the bad news.
On Sunday, authorities have identified the body discovered at Arafune mountain as that of missing Crayon Shin-chan manga creator Yoshito Usui through dental records and other means.
The body was discovered 120 meters below the mountain’s Tomoiwa cliff and reported at about 10:25 a.m. on Saturday by a male climber. Usui’s backpack, camera, and other items had fallen about 50 meters away. Inside Usui’s backpack was his mobile phone, wallet, and clothes. A police helicopter from Gunma Prefecture airlifted the body on Sunday afternoon. Police from the nearby town of Shimonita concluded that the 51-year-old creator died from collapsed lungs and other injuries sustained across his entire body sometime in the afternoon of September 11.
According to Usui’s family, Usui had said that he was “going hiking for a day in Gunma Prefecture,” as he often did, on the morning of September 11. His mobile phone was last detected in the vicinity of Karuizawa, a town about 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) northwest of his Kasukabe home, on Monday. Karuizawa is located in the mountainous eastern part of Nagano Prefecture, near the border of the equally mountainous Gunma Prefecture. In particular, Usui was said to have expressed his intent to climb the Arafune mountain, which towers 1,422 meters (4,665 feet) high at the border between Nagano and Gunma Prefectures. Authorities had been searching this area since his wife reported his disappearance on September 12, after he did not return the night before.
The editorial staff at Futabasha’s Manga Town magazine has stated on Sunday night that the “future publication [of Crayon Shin-chan] is to be determined.” Futabasha said it was “going through great shock, now that the worst outcome has come to past. There are no words to express the anguish of the surviving family, but we just pray for his happiness in the next world.”
Source: Mainichi Shimbun (link 2), Sankei Shimbun, animeanime.jp Nikansports via ANN
It is indeed a sad day for Crayon Shinchan and his fans. We want to express our condolences to his family as well.