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CVS Disposable Camcorder Hacked
ptorrone writes "We've been watching this on MAKE closely- and the king of the one-time digital camera hacks/analysis finally got his hands on a CVS Camcorder on Friday, the 24th via someone shipping him one FedEx. Within 18 hours, he had slurped the flash memory and has the unencrypted, XVID codec, 320x240, 30fps movies stored in the camera on his computer."
Now the obvious answer is "hack the camcorder. Then it doesn't cost so much and you get more value for your money." Hmmmm... I can get a 16 ounce sh*t-flavored milkshake for $3, but with a little trick, I can turn that into a gallon. What a bargain, so long as I don't mind that it's still sh*t-flavored. If I want more sh*t-flavored goodness, then darn, I better learn the trick. If I want a milkshake that doesn't taste like sh*t, I think I'd better save my pennies.
The ONLY reason I can think of getting this is to get a camcorder for your kid. If they break it, big deal.
It also sort of reminds me of that old Mattell video camera that recorded grainy B&W on audio cassettes. Though crappy, it has its own kind of retro cool if you can find one now. Perhaps these cameras have value as collectors items.
- Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
Getting a used Pure Digital / CVS Disposable Camcorder shipped to you... $15 dollars
Taking the day off work to be at home for the Fed-ex delivery... $140 dollars
Spending 18 hours hacking the camera for 30secs of video... Priceless!!!
"Simplify, simplify, simplify!" Thoreau
... isn't nothing sacred anymore? The next thing someone will hack will be the Hubble Space Telescope.
...do they completely reformat the flash every time one of these is returning for processing. This could become a strange form of voyeurism.
I wonder, if these people based their camcorder MPEG-4 encoding using the actual XviD codebase, where's the code? (not sure, but is XviD LGPL or GPL?)
I also wonder if they paid the MPEG-4 licensing fee too. (probably on that one)
Such cameras will bring a new dimension to bloggery. The extreme portability of these cameras, often smaller than the smallest commercially available MP3 players, will allow people to document their everyday lives in a very visual way. It will take videobloggery to a new dimension: a teatherless webcam, of sorts.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Disposable Digital Camcorder Interfacing
Pure Digital's Single Use Camcorder for CVS
[PureDigital CVS camcorder]
Introduction
This web page is a little raw because I just got the camera and I'm leaving on a trip soon. So, I'll be brief and hopefully informative.
If you're not familiar with the camera, here is a good review.
Disassembly
Here's a photo gallery of the disassembly of my unit.
Similar in constructioon to the PV2, this unit is rugged and can be easily recycled.
Preliminary Analysis
Others found that pressing the Record and Delete buttons while turning on the camera yields a special diagnostic page. Mine said:
FW-VERSION: 03.40
CAMERA ID:
6B7051xxxxxx
PCB VER: B2
FLASH Memory Analysis NEW
I was able to get my videos out of the camera and onto my home computer by removing the 128MB flash memory chip and putting it into my home-built flash reader. I originally built the system for the PV2 camera -- here's some more info on it. The only modification I had to make was for the increased memory size of the new part. The reader is nothing special -- just a cheaper (and slower) version of comercially available units.
I've placed my analysis of the camcorder's flash memory on its own page. That page also has sample videos I have recovered from my camera.
Resources
The most current discussion that I follow is on the Camera Hacking message board. There is also discussion on Dakota PV2 discussion board.
contact me: my email address is my first name (john) at my last name (maushammer) dot com.
Is this legal? Yes.
Info on the original most recent still disposable digital camera
other systems I've played with
visit my homepage
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Zoran Corporation
COACH
COACHWare 1.0
2002:01:13 12:06:00
Better call in 007 for protection on this one!
This will finally enable you to create your own cheap sextapes, without the chance that some curious CVS employee(s) will see your work..
I figured someone would criticize me. You're seeing low-res version for slashdot - sorry, bandwidth trumps aesthetics today. Tomorrow the pretty pictures will go back up.
Check the file sizes:
-rw-r--r-- 38000 Jun 24 21:09 PICT0001-info.png
-rw-r--r-- 13343 Jun 25 12:36 PICT0001-info.jpg
-rw-r--r-- 10958 Jun 25 12:38 camcorder-icon-full.jpg
-rw-r--r-- 2334 Jun 25 12:38 camcorder-icon.jpg
-rw-r----- 4547 Jun 25 13:02 index.html
-rw-r----- 23960 Jun 25 13:25 flash.html
My low-res pictures are 13k vs 38k, and 2.3k vs 11k. Overall, loading flash.html is 40k instead of 73k. That means (roughly) 80% more visitors for the same bandwidth!
I also tried GIF and TIFF - they were pretty close in size to the original PNG.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
As a current CVS employee, I can tell you that these camcorders and their digital camera like brethren are going on sale the week of July 4th. They are going to be 19.99 but you get $10 in "ExtraBucks" back. As the ad flyer says, "Its like paying $9.99".
The ExtraBucks print from the register 2 days after the qualifiying purchase and although you do need your own ExtraCare card, the information you provide can be as false as possible. ExtraBucks are good on anything in the store excluding tobacco, alcohol and prescriptions.
He might have gotten charged with a felony.
A use for hacking disposable cameras: They're disposable. That is, they're cheap enough that if you break them, you haven't lost much. That's useful for this kind of thing:
http://www.xkcd.com/kite/
I was so confident of my engineering skill and my insistence on multiple safety measures that I sent my nice, $150 digital camera up the kite line. It worked for a few hours after the 70-foot fall, but hasn't since.
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
Sure I could Google it, but my point is that I don't know what CVS cameras are, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. An explanatory link like this one would be nice.
For the rest of us, CVS is a chain of pharmacies, they're selling a small, locked, one-time use digital video camera for $30 and charging $13 to get the data off it and onto DVD.
Link
Hmm... I'm really starting to like Coral.
There is another topic currently being discussed on Slashdot regarding Customer Service .
That lady may have good reason to argue with you over a 30 cent coupon. Apparently CVS has been paying you enough you don't have to worry about every cent. Your customer obviously is having financial problems.
CVS was apparently willing to give her the benefit of the coupon at one time, why not now? Why is CVS forcing her to prostitute herself to you over thirty cents? Could it be the people who dream up all these games to play with their customers to be so well paid they have no idea that other people may not be so fortunate as to have such a well-paying career?
Personally, I would not have argued with her so much and gave her the benefit of the coupon, and personally taken it on myself to put it up the chain of how much frustration and anger amongst your customers ( as YOU see the Customer, not THEM!!! ) they are causing by coupon trickery.
Game Playing by Businesses ranks very high on my pet peeves of dealing with Business... and is also the number one reason I check Wal Mart for anything I need first. Yes, I will plug Wal Mart as they are one of the few businesses that don't make me feel like a nut for shopping there. You know, the old "I'm sorry, Sir, you don't have Our Club Card... the stated price is only for insiders - and you are not one... for you its ten dollars more" kinda shit. In my case, the Club Card was the quickest way to coax me out of their business and into Wal Mart.
It has been my observation that Club Cards are for businesses who have graduated beyond providing a service or product for their customer base and are now in the business of collecting marketing and demographic data. I do not go to a marketing analysis firm to buy a garden hose or a loaf of bread.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
You know what I'm thinking... the PureDigital 20-minute film festival. It'd be interesting to see what a good videographer can do with one of those things, and they're a great choice for kids.
I always find it funny when people post rants about bloggery. Your whole point is that you don't care what others think, you don't think others should care what others think, and yet you post as if you think people to care about what you think.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Once they run me out of their stores, they never hear from me again.
I always hear businesses complain that Wal Mart kills their business. As a former customer of many of those businesses I hear complaining, I only wanted to say why, because I often never go in their stores anymore.
Example, I haven't been to a Sav-On drugs now in years... and it was a prime place for me at one time - until they got on this Albertson's Preferred Card bandwagon. I walked in there one day, tried to buy some batteries as I picked up a prescription, and noted the price was a buck higher than normal, but if I used the Card, it was back at normal price. Mental Note: Next time I'm in Wal Mart for catfood, check the battery price. Yup. The old price Sav-On used to charge me. Action: Get batteries at WalMart and check prices of prescription medicine at the WalMart pharmacy so if they are the same price it is at Sav-On, then if I move my prescription refills over to Wal-Mart, this will completely eliminate trips to Sav-On to pick up just one item. It was. Done. Sav-On is now completely out of my picture. They are now another non-descript building I pass by on the way to Wal Mart.
I still get my batteries, and my prescriptions filled.
And the important highly paid executive of Sav-On got his hand shook by an important Marketing Professional that convinced him of the value of forcing his customers to play unwanted games.
If Sav-On wants me back, they now have to wait for Sam Walton to screw up and drive away his customer base.
What it takes to drive a customer away - often forever - may be nothing more than an argument over a 30 cent coupon that expired yesterday.
What it takes to GET a customer is a completely different story. I can say customers are a lot harder to get than they are to run away, as you have to coax them away from where they are doing business now.
The companies marketing all this club card and coupon apparatus make it their business to target well-paid corporate executives who are not likely to relate with their customer base, which has nowhere near their level of income. They know how a corporate-level guy is likely to really underestimate the value of his customer base, and consider it just another expendible tool to be used as an economic prybar. They know we want a roll of toilet paper, so they start making us jump through hoops to get it.
Its my belief that most of the executive types that make these decisions are so high up the corporate ladder that they no longer hear the anguished cry of some poor woman pleading with some sales clerk over a 30 cent coupon.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]