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trumpcovfefe t1_j7ai8db wrote

Reply to comment by ToAlphaCentauriGuy in Echolocation could give small robots the ability to find lost people by thebelsnickle1991

That has existed for a looooooong time.

MIT also figured out how to hack into any speaker or microphone to map a room without the people inside knowing.

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nicuramar t1_j7ak2v3 wrote

> MIT also figured out how to hack into any speaker or microphone to map a room without the people inside knowing.

I bet that if one finds the source for this, there are a number of caveats and limitations that didn’t make it into your summary :)

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trumpcovfefe t1_j7b3sdh wrote

https://www.technologyreview.com/2014/07/25/171967/an-indoor-positioning-system-based-on-echolocation/amp/

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pileofcrustycumsocs t1_j7c126d wrote

This article says literally nothing about hacking into the speakers. The whole thing is just that they added a program that ignores back ground noise on to an existing method of mapping a room via echolocation, it doesn’t say anything about remotely activating random speakers to do this

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trumpcovfefe t1_j7c82ko wrote

Dude its nearly been a decade since I read the original article. The original article talks about the tech and utilizing it to map rooms in hostage situation. Similar to how heat signatures are currently used.

Obviously the speakers/microphones need to be connected to a network.

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nitrohigito t1_j7ax9h5 wrote

>to hack into any speaker or microphone

aren't most speakers and microphones analog?

if they are digital, won't they all be running wildly different software stacks, with all kinds of versions, forks, and configurations?

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trumpcovfefe t1_j7b3i9h wrote

Any speaker connected to a network ** figured that'd be an obvious requirement

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nitrohigito t1_j7b49mr wrote

see my second point then

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trumpcovfefe t1_j7b4sbr wrote

the friendly write up

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nitrohigito t1_j7b5drx wrote

That friendly write-up features zero mentions of any kind of hacking.

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trumpcovfefe t1_j7b5y97 wrote

Yeah thats on the friendly version. The article write up including gov use goes over that.

I'll look for it later, its been years. The original idea was for the gov to use this to hack into systems in buildings to rescue hostages.

Similar to using heat pattern imaging systems to see where people are in a room before breaching, but the echo location allows for it to be done in larger spaces and through denser walls.

Im going back to sleep for now. Cheers

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nitrohigito t1_j7bb18w wrote

I'm sure state actors can hack a breadth of devices to achieve such a goal, was just meaning to point out that while cyberattacks tend to be highly scalable, there's enough variation across devices like this that you still need to be moderately lucky and put in some serious work hours to be able to pull this off. It's definitely not a "they just go an' haxx all devices in der" type deal, and it's needlessly alarmist to claim so.

There's also a number of other imaging techniques they can reach for. You mentioned infrared, but they can even use something like WiFi to image behind a wall. All much more circumstance-agnostic and cheap than having to build and maintain an assortment of exploit chains merely for use on a short-notice for echolocation.

If any group has such capabilities developed, they almost certainly use it much more practically (such as for surveillance). And those exploit chains won't be developed by "MIT scientists" who can certainly find a better way to spend their valuable time.

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JMoherPerc t1_j7c02do wrote

I know I’m being overly pedantic, but You can’t hack a speaker or a microphone.

You can hack a computer, and oftentimes mics are hooked up to computers.

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