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Electrical Grid Hum Used To Time Locate Any Digital Recording
illtud writes "It appears that the Metropolitan Police in London have been recording the frequency of the mains supply for the past 7 years. With this, they claim to be able to pick up the hum from any digital recording and tell when the recording was made. From the article: 'Comparing the unique pattern of the frequencies on an audio recording with a database that has been logging these changes for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year provides a digital watermark: a date and time stamp on the recording.'"
...application of technology and not one utterance of "boffin"??!?!?
I demand satisfaction!
http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/12/12/1331243/engineers-use-electrical-hum-to-fight-crime
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
If only they could apply their amazing technology to matching slashdot articles against ones that have already been posted in the last 7 years.
You're not giving them due credit for their pioneering use of amazing new load-balanced submissions technology, in which each word of a post is sent to a different editor for review.
Sure, they still have a few niggles to sort out, but man, this is the future!
Release the Ferrets!
This space available.
Well, I'm sure that the 50Hz hum sounds much warmer in its original format without digital sampling errors and whaarrrgarrbbll bitrate rhubarb rhubarb harmonics frequency blah-diddy blah blah blah oxygen-enhanced one-way digital cables, so there!
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
I use 60Hz you insensitive clod!
In that case you probably are in North America.
Now they know where you are and when. Other information will be available shortly and you won't be anonymous for much longer...
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
Okay, fine, so it has a 50hz beat. But but the question is, can you dance to it?
Slightly off-topic but fun: my favorite party trick for a self-confessed audiophile -- Admire their overpriced collection of obscure amps and equipment costing more than the average suburban home. Put on a look of concern and when asked what's the matter, mutter "Lovely bit of kit, andand perhaps it's just my ears, but I think there's some muddiness in the midrange that erodes the transparency." Off they go, down the rabbit hole of knob twiddling and speaker placement for the next several hours.