The Visual Microphone: Eavesdropping With A Bag Of Chips Or Plant Is Possible

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  • The Visual Microphone: Passive Recovery of Sound from Video

    Source: www.youtube.com / Via: www.youtube.com

    Researchers at MIT have recently discovered that with the use of a camera, even one on the other side of a soundproofed window, it is possible to make out the sounds coming from the other side. As long as the camera’s focus is on something light in weight, the object will, without a doubt, vibrate when sound waves hit it. Those vibrations, slight as they are, which are documented via the camera, will then assist in the reconstruction of sounds. All that’s left for one to do afterward is to track the color of single pixels over a period of time.

    “All it takes is a camera and a snappy algorithm,” Gizmodo notes.

    As commenter Aaron Sherman jokes, “This is pretty terrifying. Note to self: Don’t leave any potato chip bags lying around while discussing my bank password…”

    Ugh. Guess I’ll just have to hide my money under my mattress from now on if that’s the case. Just saying.

    All kidding aside, while this is quite alarming, you can’t deny that this research is absolutely mind-blowing, right?

    Let us know what you think!

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