RESOURCES
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The Visual Microphone: Passive Recovery of Sound from Video
"When sound hits an object, it causes small vibrations of the object’s surface. We show how, using only high-speed video of the object, we can extract those minute vibrations and partially recover the sound that produced them, allowing us to turn everyday objects—a glass of water, a potted plant, a box of tissues, or a bag of chips—into visual microphones." Abe Davis/Michael Rubinstein/Neal Wadhwa/Gautham Mysore/Frédo Durand/William T. Freeman 2014 |
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CIA Used Satellites/Laser Beam To Prep For Bin Laden Raid [VIDEO]
"MELISSA BLOCK: I'm really curious about this: Administration officials have said they knew 22 people were inside that compound, including someone they describe as an adult male who they say never stepped into view. How would they know he - presumably Osama bin Laden - was there if they couldn't see him? JOHN PIKE (Director, GlobalSecurity.org): Well, this is another trick of the trade. A conversation in a room is going to cause windows to vibrate. If you shine a laser beam on those windows, you can detect those vibrations, and using voice identification, you can figure out how many different voices are speaking in each of the rooms of the compound." NPR.ORG 2011 |
CIA Used Satellites/Laser Beam To Prep For Bin Laden Raid [AUDIO]
"MELISSA BLOCK: The laser beam that you're mentioning, what would the source of that laser beam be? Where would it be coming from? JOHN PIKE: (Director, GlobalSecurity.org): Well, the surveillance team is going to have to get an apartment in a building nearby, preferably in a high building, so that they can put that laser beam spot on as many windows as possible." NPR.ORG 2011 |
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A Convention of Tiny Movements
"When your voice is propelled from your mouth through the air, it hits the objects in your vicinity and causes tiny vibrations on the surfaces of those objects. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a group of computer scientists have discovered that by video recording an object using high speed cameras they can extract those minute vibrations and recover the sound that produced them. This gives them the ability to turn many everyday objects such as, a packet of crisps, a glass of water, a potted plant, and a box of tissues—into a listening device, or what they call visual microphones. Although this technology is not yet implemented by the NSA, GCHQ and other spying agencies, this blown up photograph of a super- market is an index of all the objects (shown in colour) that can, to date, be successfully used as sound recording devices. Inversely the black and white sections of this photograph operate as a map that reveals all the objects that cannot yet be used as microphones and therefore show the blind or silent spots of this technology." Lawrence Abu Hamdan 2014 |
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