this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2025
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Well, we're all reasonably intelligent people. Let's collectively brainstorm!
It looks like masking with a random pattern made to look like dirt or debris is an option.
To negate night reads, how about 2-4 layers of optical polarizing film, each transverse to the previous plane of polarization? Alternately, a coating with a visible light transparent, IR opaque pigment.
IR strobes on opposite sides of your plate works while being legal in many areas since the plate stays unmodified.
The issue I see with that is you'd need to supply power to the lights, which wouldn't be impossible, but isn't exactly trivial.
I wonder if having a license plate frame that changes it to not be a rectangle would work? Maybe even cover the frame in reflective tape to help blind the camera?
You already have power there to the license plate illuminator lights. It shouldn't be super difficult to tap into that.
The trick is to tap into that power, while keeping things looking nice and neat. Most vehicles now have the license plate lights tucked away in housings. It would be nice to be able to have something that only uses the 2-4 screw holes that are used to hold the plates on since those are universal on vehicles sold in the US.
Sure.
But it's not that hard to access, you just need to remove the back panel on the inside to access the wires. The more important thing is knowing enough about electricity to be able to splice it in, but a YouTube video should be able to handle that.
Could even literally make it mud, if you have access to a laser cutter (hacker space, etc) you could use that and make a stencil instead, then mix up some mud in a bucket (a little clay content goes a long way) and smear that over the stencil and tada – legitimately just some mud on my plate officer.