Tag Archives: Microphone

Quick and Dirty Blimp Mount for a Shotgun Mike

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Sometimes you don’t have the hardware you need, and you can either do without or let the project’s needs inspire you to create an alternative. That’s pretty sweet, and it’s even sweeter when you find a solution that’s dirt cheap.

[Chu_st] created a sub-$10 blimp mount for his shotgun mike. It consists of a PVC pipe which attaches to the microphone’s shock mount. Plastic gardening grid is used for the shell, shaped by hand into the desired blimp shape and secured with zip ties and gaffer tape. [Chu_st] suggests using nylon stocking as a wind screen. The microphone itself attaches …read more

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This is How CIA Disables Security Cameras During Hollywood-Style Operations

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In last 20 years, we have seen hundreds of caper/heist movies where spies or bank robbers hijack surveillance cameras of secure premises to either stop recording or set up an endless loop for covert operations without leaving any evidence.

Whenever I see such scenes in a movie, I wonder and ask myself: Does this happen in real-life?

Yes, it does, trust me—at least CIA agents are doing this.

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Eavesdropping Via Headphones

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We all know that speakers are microphones and microphones are speakers, right? If not, take a moment to plug your headphones into a microphone jack and yell into them. It’s not exactly hi-fi, but it works.

So it’s not a huge surprise that three security researchers in Israel have managed to turn the combination headphone and microphone input jacks that are present on most laptops into an eavesdropping device. (Paper here as PDF, with an obligatory demo video on YouTube, embedded below.) Speake(a)r is a neat proof-of-concept and a horrid pun.

There’s almost no exploit here; the just ask the …read more

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Your Headphones Can Spy On You — Even If You Have Disabled Microphone

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Have you considered the possibility that someone could be watching you through your webcam? Or Listening to all your conversations through your laptop’s microphone?

Even a bit of thought about this probability could make you feel incredibly creepy.

But most people think that they have a solution to these major issues i.e. simply covering their laptop’s webcam and microphone with tape, just

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Your Headphones Can Spy On You — Even If You Have Disabled Microphone

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Have you considered the possibility that someone could be watching you through your webcam? Or Listening to all your conversations through your laptop’s microphone?

Even a bit of thought about this probability could make you feel incredibly creepy.

But most people think that they have a solution to these major issues i.e. simply covering their laptop’s webcam and microphone with tape, just

Continue reading Your Headphones Can Spy On You — Even If You Have Disabled Microphone→

Raspberry Pi Spies On… Err… Monitors Baby

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“Quick! We’re having a baby and we need a baby monitor!” Rather than run to the local big box and plunk down cash for an off-the-shelf solution, any self-respecting hacker would rise to the challenge and hit the shop to build something like this live streaming eye-in-the-sky baby camera. Right?

At least that’s how [Antibore] handled the situation, and the results are pretty good. He designed his build around an old Raspberry Pi 2 that was hanging around. That required a WiFi adapter, and since he wanted video and audio he needed a camera and mic. The first USB mic …read more

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Stormtrooper Voice Changer Helmet uses Teensy to Mangle Audio

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Halloween has come and gone, but this DIY voice changing Star Wars Stormtrooper helmet tutorial by [Shawn Hymel] is worth a look for a number of reasons. Not only is the whole thing completely self-contained, but the voice changing is done in software thanks to the Teensy’s powerful audio filtering abilities. In addition, the Teensy also takes care of adding the iconic Stormtrooper clicks, pops, and static bursts around the voice-altered speech. Check out the video below to hear it in action.

Besides a microphone and speakers, there’s a Teensy 3.2, a low-cost add-on board for the Teensy that includes …read more

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Mac Malware Can Secretly Spy On Your Webcam and Mic – Here’s How to Stay Safe

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Apple Mac Computers are considered to be much safer than Windows at keeping viruses and malware out of its environment, but that’s simply not true anymore.

It’s not because Mac OS X is getting worse every day, but because hackers are getting smart and sophisticated these days.

The bad news for Mac users is that malware targeting webcams and microphones has now come up for Mac laptops as well.
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Low Noise Floor Microphone

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[Matt] likes to make videos (and he’s pretty good at it judging by the quality of his videos). But video isn’t much without audio. Handheld recorders with small built-in microphones have a fairly high noise floor so [Matt] has a Rode NT1-A — a pricey but very quiet microphone. However, for field work, it isn’t handy since it requires a power supply and preamp to go along with it.

Another problem is that for stereo recording you need two and because they are quiet, they tend to pick up handling noise so you probably need to mount them on tripods. …read more

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