Build a laser listening device for less than a fast food meal.
Video after the jump.
“In a microphone, sound waves (differences in the pressure of air) cause a diaphragm to vibrate back and forth, altering its resistance to an electric current. When an electric current passes through said diaphragm, the output forms a complex signal which can then be reinterpeted by speakers or a recording device as sound. The device shown here works in a very similar way. Sound bounces off of a window, causing minuscule vibrations (acting like the microphone’s diaphragm). When a laser is trained on the window, its reflection will vibrate with the sound. The laser’s reflection, if converted to an electrical signal can now be recorded as sound. I will outline how I made my own (cost me $3, hope yours is the same or less) – the technically savy among you will spot the countless variations possible on this basic idea.”
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That’s pretty slick! It’s too bad you have to not only setup a laser to hit the window, but also find the reflected light. That makes it near impossible to actually listen to conversations “hundreds of yards away”.
You’d basically have to be perfectly perpendicularly positioned (or close enough) to even find the reflected light beam (& that’s assuming you have a bright enough laser to reflect off of a transparent window).
Still, ultra cool that this can be done at all! You just have to hope for some really thick curtains so the people behind said window don’t see a red dot on their far wall.
Hm… Is there a way to filter the light from an invisible laser so you could see it through a camera or something (infrared? UV?). Then you could set it up by looking through the camera, but the people on the other end wouldn’t see any signs of a laser listening device… Hm…
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I’m surprised at how well this works. I wonder how much, if any, improvement there would be by sticking a mirror on the window. At least that way it would be a little more discreet too.
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thats stupid
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Omg saw those stickmans? I was laughing hours.
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JOEBOB GO F*** YOURSELF
THIS IS REALLY GREAT!!!!!!!!
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copied from one the spymaters episodes from discovery channel.
Nice report but forgot one thing. the KGB put a smalll prism in the window glass of the american embassy to make things simple. thats why all new emabssies and CIA offices have two layers of glass facade.and one more thing this thing will work only with an amp.URBAN MATERIALS
try theremin bugs.They are kickass.
and lasers or any light source can be reflected off a transparent window if u go above the rafraction angle.
an infrared laser from a cdrom.A IR sensor.ONe amp. Lots of calibration.One very noisey spyphone.
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You could use one of those $1/$2 “spy ear” kids listening devices as the amplifier, just swap the microphone for a light dependent resistor.
And use a low power IR laser diode placed in a laser pointer housing for an invisible beam, you would need a digital camera to see the laser dot for alignment.
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more detail?
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Hi Hossein,
There is a link in the article that provides more information. 🙂
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Wonder if a parabolic mirrored dish (like from a flashlight) would help catch the reflected beam better. You’d have to mount the photocell backwards though. Similar to a parabolic mic or sat. dish…
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can we using this for lan network on UTP cable for p2p configuration?
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Yes, Tmasman !!
There is a way to see an infrared source, such as the reflected beam of an infrared laser; and I’ll bet
that you have just the device clipped to your belt as you read this post. Its your cell phone!! No kidding.
Any device which contains a photo-multiplier (your cell phone,a camcorder,etc)will “see” inrared light.
Try this: Using the camera on your cell phone,look at the front of a television remote control -or other
remote control while someone presses a button on the remote control. Depending on the type of multiplier
in your cellphone, you will see the inrared LED (located inside the remote control) flashing as a button
is pressed. If you use a camcorder, and play the video back, It will show up as bright red. Simply use your cell phone to look for the reflected beam and align accordingly.
Infrared laser modules (pens) are pretty easy to come by; Just google them.
By the way, I built one of these devices (Laser Listener) many years ago, and it still works great!
I have a degree in electronics, and Electronics has been my passion for over twenty years.I have designed
and built’ lierally hundreds of cool electronic gadgets.
If you have any more questions-or ideas- please email me.
GadgetMKR590@aol.com
GadgetMKR590@aol.com