Cheap Video Sniffing

HadleyRipleyArgusRockefellerDog writes "Want to see what other people find interesting enough to watch with an X10 Camera? Radical Software Group has a page describing how to build a "video sniffer". They say they picked up their first image after walking half a block in NY city. X10's work on the same frequency as 802.11b. .. anyone want a combo WiFi/Video sniffer for Christmas?"

Comments

Don't you know?

[Maradine]

"Want to see what other people find interesting enough to watch with an X10 Camera?"

I already know. A pool, from left to right, and then this hot twenty-something in a blue dress, up and down.

Really, what else is there?

Year Old Dupe

[Delphix]

Here.

Re:Year Old Dupe

[evilviper]

No... That's the new Slashdot business plan. Subscribers get to see the story a year early...

Yes, it's completely intentional.

Legal? Moral?

[SilverSun]

I guess if I put my bedroom on air, I can't expect people to look away.

erm...i'll give it a miss

[crocodill]

knowing what most people seem to get webcams for from connecting to random mofos on things like iphone and netmeeting, i don't think i'll be doing this anytime soon.

Mirror

[Neophytus]

Images are a tad slow for my liking, so here is a mirror.

Ummm...

[Craig Maloney]

No, I'd rather leave all that X10 spycam action to my imagination, thank you very much.

Looking at baby cribs, kids rooms, and garden sheds just isn't my thing, thanks.

Re:Ummm...

[Pike65]

Amen.

A quick trudge of any *shudder* blog site is more than enough to convince me that everyone else leads a life as boring as mine.

Of course, it may just be that the people with interesting lives are out living them. Now there's a thought . . .

umm, I'm not so sure

[fjordboy]

I don't see how this is any cheaper than sticking a vhs up to your nose and inhaling.

Video sniffing...next thing we're gonna have an article on dry erase marker sniffing.

Encryption

[SonicTooth]

Does X10 have encryption? Espiecally if these things are being used for security cameras. Or private sex parties either way, i wouldn't want people looking in.

Re:Encryption

[AmigaAvenger]

no encryption, just a straight 2.4 ghz analogue signal, easy to pick up with any equipment capable fo getting up there...

Security camera?

[Fulkkari]

After walking for about a half a block across 13th Street, we got a picture. It was a security camera picture of some interior hallway. Must have been in a nearby building.

Why in the hell would a security camera be wireless? And this thing doesn't even seem to be encrypted!

Re:Security camera?

[Surak]

Even if someone tuned in, so what?

Security cameras don't usually record every square inch, because in many cases it isn't very practical or cost effective. If you were going to (hypothetically speaking of course) break into a place, you would definitely want to know what the camera *couldn't* see. You'd watch the camera, compare with what you know about the inside of the building, and through the process of elimination -- voila! You now know what the camera doesn't see.

Sometimes people who place security cameras don't think about other possible ways of entering buildings. They usually watch the door. But one could conceivably enter a building through windows or ventilation systems.

Even if you had a camera looking at every possible means of entry, chances are good that one or more of those cameras can be disabled or fooled somehow. Knowing what the camera can and can't see can reveal strategies for disabling or fooling the cameras.

Re:Security camera?

[(H)elix1]

Doesn't anyone on here ever watch TV or movies? Seems to me a wireless security camera would actually *help* anyone who might want to break into a given place-- then nobody needs to infiltrate ahead of the break-in to tap into a wired video system.

I worked a couple jobs while paying for college. Security (the polyester kind) being one of the less rewarding - almost as fun as column chromatography of feces samples in the lab. Anyhow, tape decks were spendy, broken cameras were cheap. I'd wire up a couple cameras in the open and leave a blind spot. That is where I stuck the hidden camera connected to one of two working tape decks. Just like shooting fish in a barrel. You would see them look to make sure the cameras did not cover that area, walk back, and stuff the goods in their pockets/lunchbox/etc.

Don't assume. The concept of honeypots extend outside of IT....

I'd never do this

[AndroidCat]

Oh, not because of any ethical issues about spying. (War-tomming?) But mainly because I refuse to buy anything from X10 after all those pop-up ads.

I know nobody is going to read tha article

[lucifuge31337]

But is is hardly BUILDING anything. It's instructions on assembling (poorly, I might add) an X10 video receiver, a small LCD panel, and a battery. This isn't even the actual source of the story on hot wo build it (it came from 2600....which is even credited on the site).

More /. quality.

Re:Cool tv though

[bjpirt]

good link, after looking through their deals, this looks like the exact same screen as the one used in the article and it comes in at $99.88

finally....

[Tablizer]

Free Porn!

Non-Modder Friendly Solution

[MyMainManVERN]

Icom has a smaller solution and with many other features such as being compact and lightweight. Both features that will keep you traveling further and enjoying the spoils of unsuspecting X10 users for many hours to come.

Simply Amazing!

[Andrew Lockhart]

A 2.4Ghz video sniffer built with *GASP* a 2.4Ghz video receiver!

Only in New York..

[Wes Janson]

could this be of any serious usefulness. Because, really, what is the density per-square-mile of wireless cameras (not to mention the density-per-square-state of *interesting* cameras)?

Start your own TV-studio

[rastakid]

It would even be cooler if you could send your own videos to the cam's receiver. Imagine sending your pre-released DivX movie to the security officers ;-)

Child abuse

[jhines]

Here in my town, someone captured the neighbor beating their kid. The video tape made short work of the legal procedings.

Yeah, about a year ago.

Okay...

[athakur999]

Slashdot people get all uppity about browser cookies from advertising companies and complain about their loss of privacy.

Then they turn around and say "cool, I need to get me some of that" to a device that lets you invade other people's privacy without their knowledge or consent.

Of course, Slashdot people are also "we hate the MPAA, when does the new Matrix movie open?" too, so I guess I shouldn't be too shocked :)

Re:Okay...

[Catnapster]

There is a difference between what is being discussed and invasion of privacy. If I encrypt the feed, breaking it would be an invasion of privacy; however, the only "privacy" you get for broadcasting unencrypted signal is privacy from people without receivers.

It's like if I walk down the street and people use X-ray glasses to stare at my crotch - that is an invasion of privacy. But this is the equivalent of me walking down the street with my dick dangling merrily. If I show it for the world to see, it's pretty dumb to get mad at people who look.

X10 != X10.com, the annoying pop-up company

[sdo1]

It's important to note that X10 is NOT the same thing as that annoying popup company, X10.com (and no, I won't even link to them). X10 is a low speed communication standard that has been around for a long time.

Do not dismiss X10 (the technology) just because some lame company has hijacked it and promotes the use of the products for illegal surveillance (yes, making a recording of you trying to boink your drunk and ugly date without her knowing is indeed illegal).

There are plenty of good companies to get X10 products from without going through X10.com. Smarthome and Radio Shack are a couple.

It's a shame X10.com chose the sleasy marking route because it really has tainted a pretty decent and useful technology.

-S