Hi-Fi Spying for the Lo-Fi Budget

[Omega]

Gentlemen, I want to tell you of a project I am going to do while I take a brief hiatus from coding my OS project. As you can read from the title I want to make a Hi-Fi spying device with a Lo-Fi budget. My device will be a Long Range LASER Listening device used to pick up vibration from glass (windows) so that I can listen in and record remote conversations. Is this legal, hell no! Is this fun, hell yeah!

Basically what I plan to do is to create a simple headphone amplifier which will attach to my Cds photoresistor. The design is visualized below:

--------[amp]---------[Cds Photoresistor/LASER]

The major lame part of my design is that it must be exactly aligned to the target window for it to work as the LASER must reflect back onto the Cds PhotoResistor. Also, the LASER will be red, which is noticeable. I might decolorize my LASER once I calibrate the alignment for sure, perhaps add a LED to denote alignment for live field usage. As for the alignment issue, I am not sure what I could do at the moment. Furthermore, if the window is purposely beveled the device would fail. I might try to aim at a corner of the glass to test possible workarounds. I want to eventually extend this to amplify voice using microphones for outdoor usage and as I design newer versions I hope to make the entire device a pocket size contraption for concealment purposes (it may look like I am listening to an iPod). I would also like to create a durable device that can pass off the transmissions wirelessly, so that I can setup my device and walk away.

If you guys show some enthusiasm I will document my progress and post it here so that you could easily DIY. For the mods or whoever else, if this post seems to sketchy for your standards then feel free to point it toward the sun and FIRE!! Note, this project was inspired by a TV commercial advertising an amplified listening device where an example of its usage was to spy on people across the street.

Go espionage!

[inflater]

I would make a circuit with 1MHz crystal oscillator, 9v battery, microphone and a wire, innocent-looking or attached to a big antenna that's supposed to be in that building/etc. And then, tune in your old AM radio That's Lo-Fi for me.

Anyways, keep us on track with your project
BTW try ultra violet or infrared color spectrum for your laser device, if it's possible. (Or RTG if you can utilise it ) That way, the human eye won't see the beam, but in case of a CCD scanner like a ordinary camera, it'll may see the infrared beam as a "white".

[Omega]

Thanks, I will keep you posted then.

Yeah, I like your idea, but that would mean that I would need to break into the building first. Social engineering perhaps? Much too risky. ha ha

That would be interesting to play with, but the fun is in this model. In the day time green is pretty hard to see I think and I could get a Photoresistor with a high sensitivity level so I could work with a green LASER instead which would make it a bit more stealthy. The one bad thing about using a Photoresistor is that it is not really all that good as a data link, which makes the audio low and choppy, but that is why I am building a headphone amplifier with an optional double-male end connector for recording purposes. I could learn a little about buffers and attempt to stream the digital electrical signal that is omitted from the Photoresistor into a buffer in my headphone amplifier before sending it out to my headphones or whatever. This would make the audio much more audible I think.

I've been looking into some Serpac cases for my circuits, if I can find one wide enough I will go ahead and build the LASER and Photoresistor right into the headphone amplifier, so that I can store it all in one secure place as opposed to having loose wire hanging with multiple components. If I thought I might need to do an all night surveillance or one in a high risk area then I suppose I could build a second version (a little bigger) which would have a built in tape-recorder (lo-fi budget) triggered by a timer (cooking timer = lo-fi) to record. I think the possibilities are endless here.

I really like the AM radio idea. I could easily make it wireless for active listening using that and it would be hi-fi for a lo-fi budget! Great ideas btw. Thanks

[inflater]

Just a quick note:

Yeah, I like your idea, but that would mean that I would need to break into the building first. Social engineering perhaps? Much too risky. ha ha

Or if you would had a long wire (two metres maybe) and a AM receiver close to it (five metres should work...). Well, I think it's Lo-Fi all the way, because of the sound quality coming from the AM radio... heh. But don't blame me if you get busted for radio interference from your radio-telecom gov't

Or you could try buying a simple pocket FM transmitter and hack it a little... in theory. Of course it wouldn't be much legal, but at least you would get better sound quality, but as a repayment for that: you would have your radio in a much shorter distance from the transmitter.

But my preferred choice would be walky talky toy "transmitters" taped under a table, for example...

[Omega]

Not worried about the government, more worried about getting sued for invasion of privacy, so I am prepared to keep my testing legal.

I still would need to get awful close to the building and the point is to spy remotely. Under the right conditions, I could be quite a ways away hearing a delayed version of someones conversation and record it! I think in the military setting one would setup a reflector on the glass in an angel so they could bounce off the reflector at an angel; thus there is no need to be pointing right at the window which is of course a lot more stealthy. I choose not to follow this same routine as I have made it a point not to come in contact with the target building in any way, besides by LASER.

With having a radio-transmitter in the mix, we open ourselves up for being detected, on perhaps another FM or AM radio inside the building. It may cause EMI or suffer due to EMI and how would you get back inside to remove the device? You would certainly never leave evidence that you were listening in, would you? This is too noisy of a device to use for these purposes where a perfectly good window will do. I would only deploy this tactic in the case where the targets were in a building with beveled glass, no windows (enclosed room inside the building), or where ever else this LASER might fail.

A walkie-talkie is again much to noisy. People will hear the static and possibly the beeps/clicks coming from the walkie-talkie. After all, it is a noisy device and isn't a walkie-talkie basically a Radio Transceiver operating on either AM or FM frequencies? Same thing as above, just noisier. I must say that the idea is extremely ghetto as hell! And, that is about as lo-fi as you get, IMHO, so it still has relevance I suppose.

On second thought, I think I would be less pissed off to find out my home has been bugged and more pissed off to find out that they did it with a walkie-talkie taped to the bottom of my kitchen table; I mean I'd personally just be flabbergasted at the sheer fact of knowing that I was out-smarted by a vagrant moron with a bloody walkie-talkie, so out of respect for the notion of mankind having an average intelligence and that being acceptably intelligent, and furthermore due to my lack of wanting to piss on that notion, I would never attempt to collect Intel in this way from anyone. I think a line should be drawn at some point here. lol

I say if you are going to get that close to the target then you should just carry a pistol and infiltrate the ducts like a man.

[inflater]

I say if you are going to get that close to the target then you should just carry a pistol and infiltrate the ducts like a man.

Pistol? That's for girls. Take the automatic weapons

But in that case I wouldn't waste my time creating spying devices... "FREEZE! Nobody move!! *bang* *ra-ta-ta-ta-ta* *bang* You there! Get away from the alarm! *tak-ta-tak-ta-tak-tak* *pain* *pain breathing* Say goodbye! *piff-paff* (...) Hey, you! You're coming with me. If you don't want to end up like he did, keep your (insert your favorite swearing here) mouth shut all the time! (...) Anybody want a piece of me? *ra-ta-ta-ta-ta* *objects breaking sounds* (...) *steals nearby car* Get the (insert your favorite swearing here) out of the car! (...) (...) *gets quickly away with the hostage* (...) Now you'll talk, or else you'll be sorry that you ever lived. (insert your extorting questions to him here)" heh heh. Just rambling

[Omega]

Now that's better. But, I would do it much different. Your way is much too unorganized. I would:

I set a fire in the building (cocktail bomb), and snipe the gangsters as they run out the front, but I leave the boss alive. My team of 5 guys and I rush up beside him with a van and we grab him and toss him in. We blind fold him and take him in the Pennsylvania Forest (really far out) and we beat him with pillow cases filled with rocks until he goes into shock. Then we hook him up to morphine drip to prolong his death as long as possible though it is inevitable at this point. After I give him a Glasgow Smile, I'll take a pair of garden sheers and cut off each finger one by one until he "spills the beans" or becomes fingerless (which ever comes first).

Hopefully, by that point he will have told me where they have the kidnapped children, else; we do plan b.

Plan B: Now, I send for another van and inside is his wife and kids. I pull his wife out and bring her blind folded and cuffed to the boss and I calmly explain how if I hook her up to the van battery that she will mostly burn from the inside out before pissing herself and expiring in a terrible, terrible way. He thinks I am bluffing, so we hook her up and roast marshmallows on her burning flesh; yum. Then as I wait for him to become coherent, I then drag out his oldest son and explain to the boss calmly that if I tie one leg to a tree and another to the bumper of our van and drive off that he will split like a wishbone; so make a wish. If he still thinks I am bluffing, plan c.

Plan C: I spare you the nightmares.