Rhode Island based photo enforcement vendor Nestor Traffic Systems this week announced a new system dubbed video VASCAR (Visual Average Speed Computation and Recording) to issue automated speeding tickets. The company touts the device as an "undetectable" since it does not use the detectable emissions of conventional radar or laser speed guns. Instead, it operates by videotaping a vehicle driving over a known distance and dividing the distance by the amount of time taken to produce the speed estimate.

Nestor's "new" system uses the same technology police used at the turn of the century in the earliest known speed traps, some of which used cameras and stopwatches to gather evidence. The troubled vendor is scrambling for new ideas as losses grew 68 percent, leaving the company $9,277,000 in the red last year, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last year, four members of the Nestor's board of directors stepped down as the company's debt soared to $59 million.