Could this be the end of the flashlight?

New, low-cost chips for sensing thermal energy could lead to a raft of new night-vision products, engineers say, ushering in everything from smarter cars to handheld devices for spelunking (and possibly bug hunting).

A new technology used by Raytheon, “wafer-level packaging,” dramatically reduces the cost of making these thermal sensors. The advances could – for the first time – put a thermal weapons sight in the hands of every soldier in a platoon. But the commercial and law-enforcement uses are endless, too, developers say.

“Once it reaches a certain price point, you’ll see it kind of popping up in a lot of different areas,” said Adam Kennedy, a lead engineer at Raytheon Vision Systems. “That’s just very, very exciting.” (more)

PI Alert: Low Cost Spy Photo/Movie Gadget for Your Smartphone

Peek-I – it’s a tiny spy gadget that helps you take pictures discreetly. 

Peek-I - Easily attaches’ magnetically to the camera of your mobile device. It works as a periscope, reflecting the image at a 90 degree angle. 

Is so tiny, that it’s hard to notice it is on your device at all. And no one will ever know you were the ONE who took THAT picture or film THAT video!!! So do you feel like James Bond yet? 

Make awesome shots of your friends, completely unaware that they were on camera!!! You don’t need to point camera directly on the object! Don’t scare your astonishing award winning picture away! Peek-I is there for you! 

Only a few of us have the courage to openly take pictures of other people or objects, at times it’s merely impossible. But the outer lens for devices Peek-I opens completely new prospective for all sorts of pictures, without being afraid to draw attention. Thanks to Peek-I, you can take a picture from around a corner without being noticed. You can also get great shots of weirdos walking down the street right next to you, without them realizing what you are doing. 

The cute design makes it look like another accessory for your device; moreover it can be easily removed, like it was never there! (more)

FutureWatch: Infrared Night Scope in a Contact Lens

Thermal imaging has already found its way onto smartphones, but a team of researchers from the University of Michigan (U-M) have gone even further with the creation of an ultrathin graphene-based light detector. 

Being only slightly thicker than two sheets of graphene, the approach has the potential to put infrared heat detecting technology into a contact lens...

“We can make the entire design super-thin,” states Zhaohui Zhong, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at U-M, "It can be stacked on a contact lens or integrated with a cell phone." (more)

New Tiny Ultrasound Camera Sees What's in Your Heart ...really

Developed by a team at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the device consists of a 1.5-mm-wide disc-shaped head, from which trails 13 tiny joined cables. The idea is that it will be inserted into a patient's coronary blood vessels or heart, snaking its way through while being pushed or pulled from outside the body via an integrated 430-micron-wide guide wire, all the while using the cables to transmit ultrasound imagery.

Its head is built around a single silicon chip, which is equipped with a dual-ring array of 56 ultrasound transmit elements and 48 receive elements. Much of the processing of the ultrasound data is performed onboard the chip itself, meaning that less information has to carried outside the body – this is why it requires no more than 13 cables, allowing its consolidated "umbilical cord" to stay skinny and flexible enough to easily move through blood vessels. (more)

Totally Invasive Video Surveillance Can Be Good For You

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now approved a device for use after an incomplete procedure (colonoscopy) that is minimally invasive and can achieve similar imaging results to a colonoscopy. PillCam Colon is a pill-sized camera that is swallowed and passes through a patient's gastrointestinal tract.

The device itself is a pill-sized video camera measuring 12 x 33 mm (0.47 x 1.3 in) that captures color video from both of its ends at 4 or 35 frames per second. An LED provides the necessary illumination for image capture and, once swallowed by the patient, it wirelessly relays footage to a recording device worn by the patient for approximately 10 hours. (more)

Eye Spy - Scraping Info From Corneas

Advances in photography are rapidly making indirect spying possible. Reflections off of corneas, or any reflective surface, can be gleaned with off-the-shelf cameras and lenses. 

Have a look...
You may want to close the blinds in your office. (more)

Bug Eyed Drone Used 368 iPhone 4S Cameras

Everyone marveled when the iPhone 4S came equipped with a full high definition video camera. Little did they know that the race to miniaturize cell phone cameras led to quite possibly the spookiest surveillance camera on earth.

Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System, or ARGUS-IS, which we recently covered, is the result of a low budget and 368 cannibalized cell phone cameras, slammed together to create the largest, finest surveillance camera in the world.

Attached to a predator drone, the camera records approximately 1 trillion gigabytes of information in a single day. (more)

Jam Da Cam - Stick it to Da Hacker Man

CamJAMR is a reusable plastic film sticker that fits over camera lenses installed on computers, tablets and smart phones. Web developer Josh Luft, 24...

To thwart any unwanted spying, Luft, who creates websites in Somers, first put Post-It notes over his computer’s web camera. The sticky papers kept falling off, so Luft began researching materials until he settled on a plastic film similar to the removable plastic films that cover screens on new cellphones.

Luft’s website, CamJAMR.com, sells the sticker packages of 12 lens covers for $4.99. The covers have various sizes to fit computer and cellphone cameras. The stickers leave no residue on the lenses, he said.

Interesting Security Technologies - Sunpass Bug & Butterfly Authentication

Doug Blakeway, President & CEO, Nanotech Security Corp., reveals new surveillance technologies in the company's Annual Report...

(from their subsidiary) "The CTR-1300 JOEY, a disguised Variable Power Audio Transmitter Utilizing a new LiPo internal battery and incorporated into the Garage Door Opener, EZ Pass, and Sunpass as disguises."

and, the latest in anti-counterfeiting technology...

Click to enlarge.

"Nanotech is developing what it sees as a highly sophisticated and commercially viable nanotechnology for use in anti-counterfeiting as well as product and document authentication. It will potentially be used to authenticate a huge range of items, including currency, legal documents and commercial products.
 
The specialized optical features are comprised of arrays of hundreds of millions of nano-holes–implanted directly onto various substrates and which emit unique light signatures that we believe cannot be reproduced by a counterfeiter.  

KolourOptics® is the trade name for this revolutionary authentication feature which produces nano-scale surface structures similar to those found on the wings of the iridescent blue Morpho Butterfly.
 
The features can be directly applied to banknotes and other valuable documents and products and will produce light signatures are both “overt” (visible to the naked eye) and some that are “covert” (machine readable only)." (more)

Sand Sized Gyroscopes to Track You Anywhere

Mini-gyroscopes developed to guide smartphones and medical equipment...
Prof. Koby Scheuer of Tel Aviv University`s School of Physical Engineering is now scaling down this crucial sensing technology for use in smartphones, medical equipment and more futuristic technologies.

Working in collaboration with Israel`s Department of Defense, Prof. Scheuer and his team of researchers have developed nano-sized optical gyroscopes that can fit on the head of a pin — and, more usefully, on an average-sized computer chip — without compromising the device`s sensitivity... Measuring a millimeter by a millimeter (0.04 inches by 0.04 inches), about the size of a grain of sand, the device can be built onto a larger chip that also contains other necessary electronics...

Nano-gyroscopes integrated into common cellphones could provide a tracking function beyond the capabilities of existing GPS systems. "If you find yourself in a place without reception, you would be able to track your exact position without the GPS signal," he says.
There are benefits to medical science as well... (more)

World's Smallest Video Cameras

Typical applications are medical endoscopy, dental imaging, surgical robots, guide wire visualization, intubation equipment visualization, disposable equipment ...and some spy applications to be sure. 

(more)

P.S. The one on the coin is a 3-D camera!

Spy Camera Glasses - Austin Powers is Thrilled

Question Mark & the Mysterians may sue... 

from the manufacturer...
"Ankaka launches Innovative Spy Camera Glasses Espionage. The high tech spy gadget manufacturer Ankaka is back!

This time they bring people the Spy Camera Glasses espionage-spy-camera-sunglasses; Very stylish and comfortable to use, this latest make of high quality spy gadgets enables people to walk around with no worries as people spy on their subject..." (more) (video)

CUT! 
Enough already. This insults the word covert. It's time to stop applying the word "spy" to everything. (grab your glasses and sing-a-long)

See What Drones See

These unmanned flying robots–some as large as jumbo jets, others as small as birds–do things straight out of science fiction. 

Much of what it takes to get these robotic airplanes to fly, sense, and kill has remained secret. But now, with rare access to drone engineers and those who fly them for the U.S. military, NOVA reveals the amazing technologies that make drones so powerful as we see how a remotely-piloted drone strike looks and feels from inside the command center.

From cameras that can capture every detail of an entire city at a glance to swarming robots that can make decisions on their own to giant air frames that can stay aloft for days on end, drones are changing our relationship to war, surveillance, and each other. And it's just the beginning. Discover the cutting edge technologies that are propelling us toward a new chapter in aviation history as NOVA gets ready for "Rise of the Drones." 

Sneak preview...

The full program is available on-line. ~Kevin

Need an "I'm not here" outfit to go with the Mysterian glasses?

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or "drones") are fast becoming an ever-present eye in the sky, potentially granting governments greater strike and surveillance capabilities than even Orwell’s fictional Big Brother could hope to wield. In response, NYC artist Adam Harvey has created a series of garments which claim to reduce the effectiveness of UAVs.

Harvey’s garments include an anti-drone hoodie and scarf, which are designed to block the thermal imaging cameras used by many airborne drones. The designer also created a burqa which appears to function in much the same way.
 

Click to enlarge

Harvey is currently selling the designs, and would-be shoppers can pick up an anti-drone hoodie for £315 (or around US$500).
 
The Stealth Wear collection is on display in the UK at Primitive London until January 31. (more)

The Mysterians and Question Mark...or viceversa?

Worried about all those security cameras tracking your every move? Try rocking one of these visors and enjoy anonymity once again.

At least that's what Isao Echizen from Japan's National Institute of Informatics is trying to achieve with the Privacy Visor (PDF).

Developed with Seiichi Gohshi of Kogakuin University, the visor has a near-infrared light source that messes up cameras but doesn't affect the wearer's vision, according to the institute.

They're hardly fashionable, but the lights create noise that prevents computer vision algorithms from extracting the features needed to recognize a face. (more) (get the t-shirt) (sing-a-long)

Seeing Through Shower Curtains and Other Light Scattering Materials

via Gizmodo.com...

Taking a shower while secure in the knowledge that no one can see through the curtains may soon be a thing of the past. Researchers Ori Katz, Eran Small and Yaron Silberberg of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, have developed a method for de-scattering light to form coherent images in real time. 

In other words, they have found a way to look through shower curtains, frosted glass and other image-blurring materials. The technique may one day aid scientists in seeing through living tissue or around corners. (more)

And, I have found their research. ~Kevin