Saturday, June 04, 2011

Camera-B-Gone!

Unk posted about Apple's remote camera disable patent, to general complaint about jackboot-enablers.

It reminded me of an especially cute hardware hack, the keychan dongle that shuts off all nearby TV sets at the touch of a button. How long do you suppose it would be after the introduction of the camera-censoring tech that a nosy-cam version of TV-B-GONE showed up?

1 comment:

Carteach said...

I wish for a gadget.

It would be no larger than a small pocket camera. It would record both sound and video. It would be able to transmit both via cell channels to an off-site recorder or web site. 12 hours of audio, and at least four hours of video. It would have two buttons on it, both just complicated enough so that it would be unlikely to come unintended. One button for audio, one for video. Press both, and both come on.

It would have no 'off' button, and reaching the battery would require disassembly with tools. Turning it off would be accomplished via plugging it into a computer which had the right code sequence.

"I order you to turn that camera off!"

"I can't, it has no off button, and you are being broadcast live right now. Everything you do to me or this camera is already live for the world to see. Want to bet on whether there are other cameras here we don't know about?"

I want several of these gadgets for my car, my home, and my pocket.