Can your TV be used as a Camera to Watch you?

I have had some strange things happen to me that caused me to believe that my computer was being hacked, for surveillance purposes, (some ongoing legal actions in play), and I put masking tape over my webcam. I had complete strangers approach me and ask me questions about things that I had been researching online. I'm starting a small, at home craft business, and was researching various glues and fabrics, etc. all over the world, including the Phillipines and China.

One day in June of this year, I had the feeling that I was being monitored through my cable box, so I unplugged the box and returned it to the cable company and brought my cable services down to "basic". This is something I had wanted to do for some time, but the strange nagging feeling gave me the urge to go ahead and do it then.

For the next 6 weeks I was inundated with phone calls from the cable company, about 4 per week, trying to get me to take the box back for free. They even sent over people 2 times, in person, unannounced to try to get me to take the box back! Creepy, the way they went nuts!

reply to post by LightSpeedDriver


The guy already had his digital box pre-opened before filming. Perhaps someone else can have a looksy!

reply to post by bluemirage5

Sure but to be honest, I just see it as an exercise in how easy and possible it is these days. Possibly not every box has them fitted but it at least shows how easy it can be done and how small the components are these days.

ETA It is trivially easy (technically speaking) to send a signal back, possibly even multiplexed with other data. Seeing as how set top boxes are not designed to be "accessed" by its owner, who is to say what really is happening?

reply to post by LightSpeedDriver


I've always had my concerns about those digital boxes. If it does'nt have a camera or microphone......there is something else in them and I can't put my finger on it. But I can say this much, before I go to sleep and while the TV is not on during the day, I unplug from the wall both TV and digital box.

Had to come back and edit my post.

Is this technology possible in our digital boxes? I'm sitting on the fence on this one until someone does some more digging......

settopboxbrisbane.com...

reply to post by ThatGuy45


Maybe it can record you daily television viewers' zapping habits but no video recording for sure unless maybe you have a Microsoft Kinect installed, than i guess it could be possible...

One of the first threads I read here on ats, had to do with pixels and receiving light, and being able to create a 3d image of yourlivng room, as light is projected out by the tv, bounces off of the items in your living room, and received by blank pixels designed to receive light. I may still have the link.. Though it seemed very real, and very probable. Scary really

reply to post by Myendica


THANK YOU! This is what I was really getting at with this thread. Can your actual tv screen be configured to capture video/images. And your post cut right through to what I was wondering. Screens rely on refresh rates to produce an image. Just as it 'snaps' an image to view, can it 'snap' an image to store i.e. send back to whomever is watching me/us?

Good post!

reply to post by ThatGuy45


I cant find the link the member had posted years ago.. and so I cant really say much more, just that your screen has x amount of pixels displaying light, and y amount of pixels that dont emit light, yet receive it.. if I recall, the person had posted a patent for it.

If somebody wants to watch me play with my weiner while I sit on the couch, all they have to do is ask. No hidden cameras necessary.


EDIT: Wow, I was not expecting so many requests in my pm box. Shame on you all.

Yes you are a VERY paranoid.

The reason I say that is what would you expect peope to see if they could vierw the other way around?

In my home they would see people sitting on a couch watching TV.

What would they see in your house?

Originally posted by Myendica
reply to post by ThatGuy45

 

I cant find the link the member had posted years ago.. and so I cant really say much more, just that your screen has x amount of pixels displaying light, and y amount of pixels that dont emit light, yet receive it.. if I recall, the person had posted a patent for it.

good starting point;

Apple patent embeds thousands of cameras among LCD pixels

April 26th 2006

Oh Barry Fox, does a week ever go by when you don't find a great patent or two? Today the intrepid Mr. Fox manages to dig up an application by consumer-darling Apple for an LCD display embedded with thousands of microscopic image sensors that would allow users to video-conference while looking straight into the "camera." Data accumulated by the individual sensors would be stitched into actual images using special software, which will probably be bundled into future versions of iLife. Since the patent specifies almost as many sensors per screen as there are pixels, some of those sensors could have different focal lengths, with a defacto zoom lens created by switching between them. Apple goes on to suggest portable uses for the technology, such as employing the displays in cellphones and PDAs, so you can add another item to the list of features we'll be expecting from the iPhone and Newton 2.0 when they finally hit stores.

Apple's all-seeing screen

26 April 2006

We could soon see a new kind of display screen from computer maker Apple - one that simultaneously takes pictures while showing images.

The clever idea is to insert thousands of microscopic image sensors in-between the liquid crystal display cells in the screen. Each sensor captures its own small image, but software stitches these together to create a single, larger picture.

A large LCD screen filled with image sensors would be ideal for videoconferencing, Apple suggests, as participants would always appear to look straight into the "camera". The technique could also add a camera function to a cellphone or PDA without wasting space, and light from the screen should help illuminate a subject.

The more sensors there are, the wider and clearer the image. Sketches accompanying the company's patent show as many sensors as liquid crystal cells in a screen. If some of the sensors have different focal lengths, switching between them would make the screen behave like a zoom lens.

Read the full patent, here.

that patent;
appft1.uspto.gov... R.&OS=DN/20060007222&RS=DN/20060007222

Integrated sensing display

Abstract

An integrated sensing display is disclosed. The sensing display includes display elements integrated with image sensing elements. As a result, the integrated sensing device can not only output images (e.g., as a display) but also input images (e.g., as a camera).

...
*snip*
10. The device of claim 1, wherein the image elements are dispersed within the display area in such a way that they prevent some pixels of information from being displayed.

11. The device of claim 1, wherein the device is used in a portable communication device.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the portable communication device is a telephone.

13. The device of claim 11, wherein the portable communication device is personal digital assistant.

14. The device of claim 1, wherein the device is used in a computer monitor or a television.

15. A device comprising: an illumination area that includes at least one light source that emits light; and an array of image elements dispersed throughout the illumination area, each image element being capable of capturing visual information from a source in front of the illumination area; wherein the image elements are dispersed such that space in-between at least some image elements is able to emit light from the at least one light source of the illumination area.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the device is a medical device.

17. A device comprising: a display area; an array of display elements located within the display area, each display element capable of displaying a pixel of information, either alone or in combination with other display elements; and an array of image elements located within the display area, each image element being capable of capturing visual information from a source in front of the display area.

18. The device of claim 17, wherein the image elements are located in a housing that isolates the image elements from the display elements.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein each image element is in its own housing.

20. The device of claim 18, wherein a row of image elements share a housing.

...

"anything within the public eye, even the most advanced is anywhere between 10-100 generations behind the upper echelon of actualized usable resources and assets."

Quoting External Sources - Please Review This Link

Think of a piece of coax as a water hose.

It can handle 1000's of signals in each direction.

There is a rumor the satellite companies can listen through your receiver.

Video is never far behind.

To answer your question in a word...Yes

TEMPEST is the word you're looking for...

one method - but its much much more than van eck :
www.nsa.gov...

en.wikipedia.org...


Electromagnetic Radiation from Video
Display Units: An Eavesdropping Risk?
cryptome.org...

more:
cryptome.org...

insider knowledge:
israel masterd it in the way they can point a laser on your head and can hear through the vibrations of your skull to what you're saying...and a laser can be build in a lot of things...i think this goes way beyond that (military is 50 years ahead of us) so they might can listen to us through wlan or whatever is floating around

nuff said - i expect that no one reads it and everybody keeps speculating

I repair computers, TVs and several other electrical items for a living, and I have never found any hidden cameras in any of the TVs I have looked at, and I have repaired pretty much every brand out there. Besides which, with the exception of the newer internet TVs, there is no real way of them getting the information, and no, there is no short range transmitters in them either.

Someone mentioned using the electrical system as a means, that wouldn't work either, it's not like using powerline adapters on your home circuit.

god is the power that is. God will judge you through your internet usage, god will have every detail about you and god will judge.
God will make you pay. God will tax you, god will make you fear, god is in control , and its working.

Puppets and puppets and muppets and muppets.

I "googled" it myself and found this:

it.toolbox.com...

sounds scary to me as well. They are indeed planing this...though It has not been implemented as of yet.

reply to post by woogleuk


i dont really get your post (eng is not my first language) but i know that its possible to get passwords/information through the normal electric grid in your house...also by measuring the flashing rate and voltage difference at some server/routers...

reply to post by allintoaccount


As he will judge you, by the measure that you judge others.

Read the book you have missed a few things in there. No one is spotless ...No, not even the Holier than thou's.

And why does every thread have to become a platform to preach...go to the religion forum please.

If you have any device connected via HDMI to your HDTV and that device is connected to the internet, or if the HDTV has built in internet capability, unpublished circuitry could be installed in your HDTV and it provide both audio and video out from your room to anywhere. HDMI V1.4, that is.

www.hdmi.org...

Additionally, if there are any V1.4 HDMI device in your subnet with wifi, unpublished circuitry can provide snooping of all wifi devices in your dwellings wifi range, even close neighbors.

Hey, what's that knocking on my doo....