See No Evil: Discovering Covert Surveillance Devices Using Thermal Imaging (original) (raw)
Power, Privacy and Thermal Imaging
Minnesota Law Review, 2002
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Advanced Techniques for Preventing Thermal Imaging Attacks
27th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, 2022
Thermal cameras can be used to detect user input on interfaces, such as touchscreens, keyboards, and PIN pads, by recording the heat traces left by the users' fingers after interaction (e.g., typing a message or entering a PIN) and using them to reconstruct the input. While previous work mitigated the thermal attacks by complicating input or distorting heat traces, our research is the first to propose preventing thermal attack using deep learning (DL) techniques to prevent malicious use of thermal cameras. Our DL models detect interfaces in the thermal camera feed and then obfuscate heat traces on them. Our preliminary findings show that the proposed framework can detect interfaces and eliminate authentication information from thermal images. At the same time, our methods still reveal if an interface has been interacted with. Thus, our approach improves security without impacting the utility of the thermal camera. CCS CONCEPTS • Computer systems organization → Human Computer Interaction; IoT ; Security and Privacy; side channel attack.
Thermal Pattern and Thermal Tracking: fingerprints of an environmental illicit
Proceedings of the 2012 International Conference on Quantitative InfraRed Thermography, 2012
Being able to identify crime/guilty relationship is central to police investigation and new technologies enable authorities to do this faster and more accurately than ever before. In recent years, our research team has introduced the use of a range of aerial platforms and an innovative application of thermography to detect several illegal activities; for example illegal sanitary sewer and storm-drain connections, illicit discharges and other "anomalies" on the surface waters can be easily identified using their thermal infrared signatures. This paper introduces first results of a Thermal Pattern and Thermal Tracking approach, that can be used to identify different phenomena and several pollutants.
Spying on the Spy: Security Analysis of Hidden Cameras
arXiv (Cornell University), 2023
Hidden cameras, also called spy cameras, are surveillance tools commonly used to spy on people without their knowledge. Whilst previous studies largely focused on investigating the detection of such a camera and the privacy implications, the security of the camera itself has received limited attention. Compared with ordinary IP cameras, spy cameras are normally sold in bulk at cheap prices and are ubiquitously deployed in hidden places within homes and workplaces. A security compromise of these cameras can have severe consequences. In this paper, we analyse a generic IP camera module, which has been packaged and re-branded for sale by several spy camera vendors. The module is controlled by mobile phone apps available on iOS and Android. By analysing the Android app and the traffic data, we reverse-engineered the security design of the whole system, including the module's Linux OS environment, the file structure, the authentication mechanism, the session management, and the communication with a remote server. Serious vulnerabilities have been identified in every component. Combined together, these vulnerabilities allow an adversary to take complete control of a spy camera from anywhere over the Internet, enabling arbitrary code execution. This is possible even if the camera is behind a firewall. All that an adversary needs to launch an attack is the camera's serial number, which users sometimes unknowingly share in online reviews. We responsibly disclosed our findings to the manufacturer. Whilst the manufacturer acknowledged our work, they showed no intention to fix the problems. Patching or recalling the affected cameras is infeasible due to complexities in the supply chain. However, it is prudent to assume that bad actors have already been exploiting these flaws. We provide details of the identified vulnerabilities in order to raise public awareness, especially on the grave danger of disclosing a spy camera's serial number.
Non-contact, portable, and stand-off infrared thermal imager for security scanning applications
AIP advances, 2024
In this article, we demonstrated the physical application of a portable infrared (IR) security scanning system for the non-contact and stand-off detection of target objects concealed underneath clothing. Such a system combines IR imaging and transfer learning with convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to enhance the detection of weak thermal signals and automate the classification of IR images. A mid-wavelength IR detector was used to record the real-time heat emitted from the clothing surface by human subjects. Concealed objects reduce the transmissivity of IR radiation from the body to the clothing surface, generally showing lower IR intensity compared to regions without objects. Due to limited resources for training data, the transfer learning approach was applied by fine-tuning a pre-trained CNN ResNet-50 model using the ImageNet database. Two image types were investigated here, i.e., raw thermal and Fuzzy-c clustered images. Receiver operating characteristic curves were built using a holdout set, showing an area-under-the-curve of 0.8934 and 0.9681 for the raw and Fuzzy-c clustered image models, respectively. The gradient-weighted class activation mapping visualization method was used to improve target identification, showing an accurate prediction of the object area. It was also found that complex clothing, such as those composed of materials of different transmissivity, could mislead the model in classification. The proposed IR-based detector has shown potential as a non-contact, stand-off security scanning system that can be deployed in diverse locations and ensure the safety of civilians.
Hot Shoes in the Room: Authentication of Thermal Imaging for Quantitative Forensic Analysis
Journal of Imaging, 2018
Thermal imaging has been a mainstay of military applications and diagnostic engineering. However, there is currently no formalised procedure for the use of thermal imaging capable of standing up to judicial scrutiny. Using a scientifically sound characterisation method, we describe the cooling function of three common shoe types at an ambient room temperature of 22 • C (295 K) based on the digital output of a consumer-grade FLIR i50 thermal imager. Our method allows the reliable estimation of cooling time from pixel intensity values within a time interval of 3 to 25 min after shoes have been removed. We found a significant linear relationship between pixel intensity level and temperature. The calibration method allows the replicable determination of independent thermal cooling profiles for objects without the need for emissivity values associated with non-ideal black-body thermal radiation or system noise functions. The method has potential applications for law enforcement and forensic research, such as cross-validating statements about time spent by a person in a room. The use of thermal images can thus provide forensic scientists, law enforcement officials, and legislative bodies with an efficient and cost-effective tool for obtaining and interpreting time-based evidence.
Thermal Imaging And Its Application In Defence Systems
AIP Conference Proceedings, 2011
Thermal imaging is a boon to the armed forces namely army, navy and airforce because of its day night working capability and ability to perform well in all weather conditions. Thermal detectors capture the infrared radiation emitted by all objects above absolute zero temperature. The temperature variations of the captured scene are represented as a thermogram. With the advent of infrared detector technology, the bulky cooled thermal detectors having moving parts and demanding cryogenic temperatures have transformed into small and less expensive uncooled microbolometers having no moving parts, thereby making systems more rugged requiring less maintenance. Thermal imaging due to its various advantages has a large number of applications in military and defence. It is popularly used by the army and navy for border surveillance and law enforcement. It is also used in ship collision avoidance and guidance systems. In the aviation industry it has greatly mitigated the risks of flying in low light and night conditions. They are widely used in military aviation to identify, locate and target the enemy forces. Recently, they are also being incorporated in civil aviation for health monitoring of aircrafts.
Review of Methods for the Surveillance and Access Control Using the Thermal Imaging System
Review of Innovation and Competitiveness, 2016
This paper presents methods for human detection for application in the field of national security in the context of state border surveillance. Except in the context of state border security, the presented methods can be applied to monitor other protected object and infrastructure such as ports and airports, power plants, water supply systems, oil pipelines, etc. Presented methods are based on use of thermal imaging systems for the human detection, recognition and identification. In addition to methods for the detection of persons, are presented and methods for face recognition and identification of the person. The use of such systems has special significance in the context of national security in the domain of timely detection of illegal crossing of state border or illegal movement near buildings, which are of special importance for national security such as traffic infrastructure facilities, power plants, military bases, especially in mountain or forests areas. In this context, thermal imaging has significant advantages over the optical camera surveillance systems because thermal imaging is robust to weather conditions and due to such an infrared thermal system can successfully applied in any weather conditions, or the periods of the day. Featured are procedures that has human detection results as well as a brief survey of specific implementation in terms of the use of infrared thermal imagers mounted on autonomous vehicles (AV) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). In addition to the above in this paper are described techniques and methods of face detection and human identification based on thermal image (thermogram).
ThermoSteg—Covert Channel for Microbolometer Thermographic Cameras
Sensors, 2021
The article presents a new concept—steganography in thermography. Steganography is a technique of hiding information in a non-obvious way and belongs to sciences related to information security. The proposed method, called ThermoSteg, uses a modification of one of the parameters of the thermal imaging camera—integration time—to embed the signal containing hidden information. Integration time changing makes the microbolometer array heat up while reading the sensors. The covert information can be extracted from the stream of thermograms recorded by another thermal camera that observes the first one. The covert channel created with the ThermoSteg method allows the transmission of covert data using a thermal sensor as a wireless data transmitter. This article describes a physical phenomenon that is exploited by the ThermoSteg method and two proposed methods of covert data extraction, and presents the results of experiments.
Environmental monitoring and assessment, 2014
Being able to identify the environmental crimes and the guilty parties is central to police investigations, and new technologies enable the authorities to do this faster and more accurately than ever before. In recent years, our research team has introduced the use of a range of aerial platforms and an innovative application of thermography to detect several illegal activities; for example, illegal sanitary sewer and storm-drain connections, illicit wastewater discharges, and other "anomalies" on surface waters can be easily identified using their thermal infrared signatures. It can also be used to detect illegal solid/liquid waste dumps or illicit air discharges. This paper introduces first results of a Thermal Pattern and Thermal Tracking approach that can be used to identify different phenomena and several pollutants. The aims of this paper were to introduce a fingerprint paradigm for environmental police investigations, defining several specific signatures (patterns) t...
An Effective Surveillance System Using Thermal Camera
Thermography, or thermal visualization is a type of infrared visualization. Thermographic cameras are used in many heavy factories like metal recycling factories, wafer production factories and etc for monitoring the temperature conditions of the machines. Besides, thermographic camera can be used to detect trespassers in environment with poor lighting condition, whereby, the conventional digital cameras are less applicable in. In this paper, we proposed two simple and fast detection algorithms into a cost effective thermal imaging surveillance system. This surveillance system not only used in monitoring the functioning of different machinery and electrical equipments in a factory site, it can also used for detecting the trespassers in poor lighting condition. Experimental results show that the proposed surveillance system achieves high accuracy in monitoring machines conditions and detecting trespassers.
2003
This paper describes using wearable computing devices to perform "sousveillance " (inverse surveillance) as a counter to organizational surveillance. A variety of wearable computing devices generated different kinds of responses, and allowed for the collection of data in different situations. Visible sousveillance often evoked counter-performances by front-line surveillance workers. The juxtaposition of sousveillance with surveillance generates new kinds of information in a social surveillance situation. Being Surveilled These days, if you feel like somebody's watching you, you might be right. One year after the Sept 11 attacks, security experts and privacy advocates say there has been a surge in the number of video cameras installed around the country [U.S.]. The electronic eyes keep an unwavering gaze on everything from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Washington Monument…. [For example,] a group of anti-surveillance activists [say] … they have seen a 40 % increase in ...
Detecting Wireless Spy Cameras Via Stimulating and Probing
The rapid proliferation of wireless video cameras has raised serious privacy concerns. In this paper, we propose a stimulating-andprobing approach to detecting wireless spy cameras. The core idea is to actively alter the light condition of a private space to manipulate the spy camera's video scene, and then investigates the responsive variations of a packet ow to determine if it is produced by a wireless camera. Following this approach, we develop Blink and Flicker -two practical systems for detecting wireless spy cameras. Blink is a lightweight app that can be deployed on o -the-shelf mobile devices. It asks the user to turn on/o the light of her private space, and then uses the light sensor and the wireless radio of the mobile device to identify the response of wireless cameras. Flicker is a robust and automated system that augments Blink to detect wireless cameras in both live and o ine streaming modes. Flicker employs a cheap and portable circuit, which harnesses daily used LEDs to stimulate wireless cameras using human-invisible ickering. The time series of stimuli is further encoded using FEC to combat ambient light and uncontrollable packet ow variations that may degrade detection performance. Extensive experiments show that Blink and Flicker can accurately detect wireless cameras under a wide range of network and environmental conditions.
Exploiting Phase Information in Thermal Scans for Stealthy Trojan Detection
2018 21st Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design (DSD), 2018
Infrared thermography has been recognized for its ability to investigate integrated circuits in a non destructive way. Coupled to lock-in correlation it has proven efficient in detecting thermal hot spots. Most of the state of the Art measurement systems are based on amplitude analysis. In this paper we propose to investigate weak thermal hot spots using the phase of infrared signals. We demonstrate that phase analysis is a formidable alternative to amplitude to detect small heat signatures. Finally, we apply our measurement platform and its detection method to the identification of stealthy hardware Trojans.
Thermography at Millimetre Wavelengths for Security Inspection of Footwear
Progress In Electromagnetics Research M
Millimetre-wave thermography is used to image through the soles of shoes as proof of principle study into the application of such an approach for security inspection. Current airport security screening practice necessitates the removal of shoes prior to x-ray screening for potential threats or other concealments, for example explosive or explosive precursor materials; narcotic substances or small weapons. The authors demonstrate that thermography at ∼ 250 GHz is able to reveal a variety of objects concealed within the soles of typical shoes, and that such an approach might be applied to rapidly screen passengers without necessitating the removal of their footwear.
Cambridge encyclopedia of anthropology, 2023
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