MIT Develops Tech to Record Conversations Using Inanimate Objects
Your plant pot may be spying on you
Paul Joseph Watson
August 7, 2014
MIT researchers have developed new technology that can record conversations via the miniscule vibrations that sound waves create in inanimate objects, paving the way for yet more invasive forms of surveillance.
Lead author Abe Davis and his team demonstrated that movements in objects like chip packets or pot plants could be recorded by video cameras and then turned back into audible sound, including words, even when the camera is outside the room where the conversation is taking place.
“Using only a video of the object and suitable processing algorithm we can extract these minute vibrations and partially recover the sounds that produced them letting us turn everyday objects into visual microphones,” said Davis.
According to the Telegraph, the research means that, “Soundproof rooms are no longer a defence against eavesdroppers,” and that surveillance cameras could now double as audio recorders without the need to install additional technology. Intelligence agencies already utilize a form of this technology although up until now, such systems have not been able to penetrate sound proof glass.
The video demonstration shows that by recording the vibrations of leaves on a pot plant, the words from the nursery rhyme Mary Had A Little Lamb could be discerned once the vibrations were translated into sound.