Making Digital Cameras Less Attractive Targets for Theft

Cameras are easy targets for theft. They are expensive, small, usually carried in the open, and not easily identifiable when stolen. Unlike cell phones, cameras typically do not have passwords or other login procedures, so the full functionality is generally available to anyone with physical access to the camera, and stolen cameras behave indistinguishably from ones operated by their legitimate owners. The current work examines various methods for making cameras less attractive targets for theft without significantly increasing either camera cost or the complexity of the user interface and interactions. Many of the new methods use various forms of anomalous behavior identification to enable the camera to passively recognize when it is likely that the person operating the camera is not the owner.