Peeping Tom filter lets phones see through bikinis

A phone that lets you see through clothes is the stuff of teenage boys' dreams - and now it's a reality in Japan.

A third party developer in Tokyo, Yamada Denshi, has developed an add-on to Vodafone handsets, intended to be used as a night filter to allow Big Red's customers to take pictures with their phones in the dark.

Photo stories

Check out silicon.com's latest photo stories here…

1. Photos: Bill Gates puts on a show at CES
2. Photos of the year
3. Photos: Satellite mapping through clouds
4. Photos: Future tech at Microsoft Innovation day
5. Photos: The super 3D body scanner
6. Photos: 10 gadgets to wish for this Xmas
7. Photos: The best of Google Sky
8. Photos: Five mobile gadgets for cops
9. Photos: Floating computers keep an eye on the oceans
10. Photos: The best of Google Earth

Unfortunately, the night vision camera has an unexpected side effect - in the right circumstances, it allows users to see a lot more than they bargained for.

As well as taking snaps in the dark, the Yamada Denshi infrared filter sees through people's clothes.

When attached to a high-end camera, the device can give the effect of seeing through some garments – it depends on how easily infrared can penetrate the fabric in question - and is reportedly particularly effective on dark bikinis.

The handset most often used with the £100 filter - the V602-SH - is only available in Japan.

A Vodafone spokeswoman confirmed the peeping Tom accessory isn't a problem in the UK. She added that Yamada Denshi is a third party supplier, Vodafone's control is limited. "They are not an approved third party," she said.

"We would never go to market with a phone with any kind of capacity to see people naked."

Camera phone technology has long prompted fears of voyeurism, leading several gyms - and even some Scottish schools - to ban picture phones in case they were used to take inappropriate pictures.

Voyeurism with camera phones became such a problem in South Korea that the government legislated the phones must make a noise when pictures are taken.