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Box With Hidden Camera Travels Through the Mail

Posted by timothy on from the ok-now-on-to-the-baggage-handling-system dept.

kkleiner writes "The modern mailing system can seem like magic, but the systems in place to reliably get boxes from A to B is a marvel of logistics. Now, a Dutch designer named Ruben van der Vleuten has unraveled the mystery for non-postal employees by installing a camera within a parcel to record the journey."

33 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Dont try it at home. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 2

    Some guy who was working on early models of the toy Furby got a friendly call from the FBI. This time it slipped through, but you might not be that lucky.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:Dont try it at home. by BenSchuarmer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Too bad the FBI didn't stop the Furbies when there was still a chance to do so.

    2. Re:Dont try it at home. by show+me+altoids · · Score: 3, Interesting

      As long as it doesn't record the inside of a meat packing plant it'll be fine.

      --
      I feel sorry for people that don't drink, because when they get up in the morning, that's as good as they're gonna feel
    3. Re:Dont try it at home. by Seumas · · Score: 2

      Exactly what I was thinking. In an age when you can be hassled or even arrested for taking a picture of a landmark, you better believe you risk being arrested for "orchestrating a terrorist plot" and using that camera going through the system to help scope out weak-points. Remember, we're no longer a sane society.

    4. Re:Dont try it at home. by Algae_94 · · Score: 4, Informative

      The Boston PD thought a bunch of LED signs for the Aqua Teen's movie were bombs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_bomb_scare. They had batteries, a PCB, and wires. Even the most well trained employees can be complete morons at times.

    5. Re:Dont try it at home. by Kiwikwi · · Score: 2

      I don't think this was the US Postal Service.

      Correct. This is the Danish postal service.

      To put things in perspective: Shortly after September 11, 2001, a friend of mine figured it might be a funny joke to send me a "fake anthrax letter" though the mail. When the flour leaked from the envelope during shipping, the entire post office was shut down and evacuated, and my friend was arrested in the middle of the night, prosecuted... and cleared of all charges. Because, y'know, it was just flour. No harm, no foul.

      So feel free to try this at home, if you live in Denmark.

    6. Re:Dont try it at home. by SpectreBlofeld · · Score: 2

      Do they make you pull out a pentalobe screwdriver and disassemble an iPhone before shipment?

  2. Accelerometer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    An accompanying accelerometer would be interesting as well.

    1. Re:Accelerometer by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

      I can't think offhand if I have heard of accelerometers being used routinely, but I'm sure they could be.

      Yes, both accelerometers and tilt sensors (for things required to remain upright) are common. They attach to the outside of the box with a big warning sticker saying you should not sign for the package if the threshold indicator has triggered. I have received many packages with these sensors, and more often than not, they are triggered. My experience is that UPS is the worst at abusing packages. We have a security camera on our loading dock, and we have recorded several instances of the UPS delivery guy tossing packages out of the back of this truck onto the concrete, with about a three meter drop from the apogee. When presented with the video evidence, UPS paid for the damage, but the driver kept his job, although now he occasionally glances up at the camera with a scowl.

    2. Re:Accelerometer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Like this?

  3. Should be standard by Hatta · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Once these sensors get cheap enough, this should be standard. Or at least standard if you buy insurance. It would be awfully nice to have accelerometers and GPS tracking on important packages. Embedded cameras might help prevent package loss too.

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    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    1. Re:Should be standard by ZiakII · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Embedded cameras might help prevent package loss too

      How after they loose the package are they going to view the video footage?

    2. Re:Should be standard by Leif_Bloomquist · · Score: 4, Informative

      It would be awfully nice to have accelerometers and GPS tracking on important packages.

      They sort of exist in a low-tech form. My company uses these on every shipment.

      http://www.shockwatch.com/monitoring-devices/impact-sensor/impact-indicators/

    3. Re:Should be standard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      If you keep adding stuff like this to your box I will definitely steal it. Can I suggest that you add an HD capable screen?

    4. Re:Should be standard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Give it up. This is slashdot. They 3D print Stallman's dick here after spending a year fucking about with lashups like this story. Only to shove it up their ass.

      What the fuck is a lashup?

  4. Looks like a bomb... by ZiakII · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm actually surprised this didn't get flagged as it looks like a bomb.

    1. Re:Looks like a bomb... by Forge · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm actually surprised this didn't get flagged as it looks like a bomb.

      Bet it doesn't SMELL like a Bomb. (I.e. No fumes from the usual explosive or poisonus chemicals).

      --
      --= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
    2. Re:Looks like a bomb... by steelfood · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's because it didn't have a countdown timer. Everybody knows it's only a bomb if there's a LCD readout of the time left to detonation.

      --
      "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
    3. Re:Looks like a bomb... by geoskd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm actually surprised this didn't get flagged as it looks like a bomb.

      It does? What part? It just looks like a pile of electronics to me. Bombs have certain very specific characteristics: This has none of those characteristics. You don't happen to work for the TSA or anything do you?

      --
      I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
    4. Re:Looks like a bomb... by Princeofcups · · Score: 2

      I'm actually surprised this didn't get flagged as it looks like a bomb.

      That's US and UK you are thinking about. A lot of the rest of the world is still sane.

      --
      The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
  5. God is their routing agent? by Thud457 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Obviously this guy didn't write "Atheist" on the outside of the box, it was actually delivered.

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  6. I thought this was interesting by k6mfw · · Score: 2

    don't know why so many complaints. OK so has been done before, but I haven't seen such video before. However, this package was "lucky" to get good shots (camera could have been pointing mostly at side of another box or at a wall). probably too risky to try in countries like US, China, or Russia as this can get certain attention from authorities you don't want to have.

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    mfwright@batnet.com
    1. Re:I thought this was interesting by camperdave · · Score: 2

      But weren't you just waiting for it to go down one of those spiral slides off of the conveyor belt... and then it did! Oh! The excitement!.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  7. Hmmm by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Can we get the guys at Atheist Shoes to do the same :)

    --

    Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  8. Re:Old news... by ganjadude · · Score: 4, Insightful

    you do know not everyone reads every site on the web right?

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  9. Re:Old news... by FilmedInNoir · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well SlashDot's motto use to be "News for Nerds"... now it's blank? Maybe it should be "Vaguely geeky stuff that happened at some point."

    --
    Sig. Sig. Sputnik
  10. Neat video, bad idea by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 2

    I can see a government viewing this as a way to probe mail security. Imagine if I'd sent the same video box to my Senator; maybe even with a GPS unit inside and broadcast ability. That would allow me to figure out how Congressional mail is sorted and secured. They wouldn't be happy about that.

    --
    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
  11. Re:Old news... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2

    And yet somehow we all know that Slashdot is becoming more irrelevant. Weird.

    For something timeless like this story I don't really care that it's been posted elsewhere (what is that anyway, aspie or OCD?). I find Slashdot to be a reasonable filter of interesting items, so I keep looking at it and I skip stories I've seen elsewhere.

    But at the same time, adding and deleting friends has been mostly broken for at least 5 months. Multiple bug reports and no response or fix - it's not clear to me that there's anybody at Slashdot other than those approving stories.

    Did they all get told to go try out Dice.com? If nobody is there, its continued existence isn't in question, it's simply a matter of when. Systems need maintenance to continue to function. I hope that's not the case.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  12. No Pi? by sethradio · · Score: 2

    It looked like he use an Arduino in that box. I wonder if he could have used a Raspberry Pi.

    --
    "Nationalism is an infantile sickness. It is the measles of the human race." -Albert Einstein
    1. Re:No Pi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Sure, makes perfect sense to use something more expensive, unnecessarily powerful and with worse power consumption...

      Oh wait. It runs linux...

  13. Re:GPS? by femtobyte · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They just seem to cost more because the USPS being funded by taxes!

    That would be a great point, besides the fact that it's blatantly false. The USPS is funded by the revenues they make from their sales --- despite being a constitutionally authorized government function, required to provide service even to unprofitable distant rural residents.

  14. Danish postal service by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    That's was the Danish postal service. While a camera in a box might be a problem in other parts of the world I doubt that anyone in Denmark is going to be upset about this. Maybe the postal workers don't like being filmed but I don't think anyone will be freaking out about bombs or terrorism.

    Great idea and fun video.

  15. Direct link to the video. by antdude · · Score: 3, Informative

    https://vimeo.com/59693471

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    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).