Rails - Aug 2006 - loading an image to instance variable of AR

Hi,

I would like to load an image (not uploading from the client) and store 
this image as an instance variable of my model ?
I do that because I want to render it with  
send_data(Person.defaultImage, :type => "image/jpeg", :disposition 
=>"inline")    

This is the code I did in my model, that not works ;-(, no error, but 
the image is not render wth the send_data

def defaultImage
     @waitingImage=[]
          file=File.open("#{RAILS_ROOT}/public/images/picture.jpg",
"r")
          file.each_byte do |abyte|
              @waitingImage << abyte
          end       
     return @waitingImage        
end


thanks
arnaud