CELEBRITIES hounded by paparazzi may at last be able to emerge from behind their dark glasses without trepidation.

By wearing a specially designed electronic badge that jams electronic cameras, they will be able to prevent photographers from taking unwanted pictures.

The “privacy protection system” being developed by Hewlett-Packard will allow the publicity-shy to transmit an infrared signal to any nearby compatible camera. Once activated, the camera’s software will automatically blur beyond recognition the face of anybody wearing the badge, New Scientist magazine reports.

The threat of being caught on a concealed webcam may also be reduced with technology developed by the Japanese inventors Hiromi Someya and Toshiki Ishino of Kanagawa which fuzzes out anyone caught in the shot.

As a web surfer zooms in on a scene, intelligent face-recognition software identifies faces coming into range. The picture resolution of the faces is progressively reduced, so that individual mugshots are never clearly captured. When the lens zooms back out the clarity returns.

Although the technology will offer some comfort to those who are assailed by the press against their will, it will do nothing for hundreds of aspiring starlets to solve the opposite problem — not being photographed enough.

To this end, Nokia is developing a new Global Positioning System with which phonecam users will be able to invite paparazzi to take their picture. By clicking a “celebrity mode” button the camera sends out a Wi-Fi signal inviting anyone near by with a compatible camera to take a photograph.

Alongside its “privacy protection system”, Hewlett-Packard is developing a camera activated by a brooch or a clipped-on earring which can take a picture of someone without their knowledge.

The earring contains an accelerometer that detects a flick of the head and sends a wireless trigger signal to the camera to take a picture.

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