Yep, I think the “cleverness” here is that it isn’t fully passive strictly speaking, it requires some human input on a regular basis to meet the posted numbers. Namely, you have to open and close the little chamber at the correct interval, and squeegee the water into the collection material every so often with that French press-like thing on the top.
Usually at these events there are staff who constantly look around for people who might be recording, and they don’t hesitate to kick you out if you’re caught more than once. So it’s possible if you have a decent number of people who are good about being sneaky and have covert equipment, but not easy.
It makes you wonder what will happen when more people start wearing smart AR glasses that can record everything and barely look any different than regular glasses.
Looking forward to another fun read!
Once you add electricity into the mix there are a lot of options, though a peltier is so inefficient at what it does that you’d be better off using the electricity to power a refrigeration loop to “dehumidify” the air the old-fashioned way.