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Conversations remotely detected from cell phone vibrations, researchers report
“Wireless tapping” is an emerging form of surveillance where full conversations can be remotely deciphered from the vibrations produced by a mobile phone’s earpiece. With the goal of protecting people’s privacy from potential bad actors, a team of computer science researchers at Penn State demonstrated that full sentences — up to 10,000 words — can be gleaned with 60% accuracy up to three meters, or almost 10 feet, from a caller.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An emerging form of surveillance, “wireless-tapping,” explores the possibility of remotely deciphering conversations from the tiny vibrations produced by a cell phone’s earpiece. Basak and his adviser, Mahanth Gowda, associate professor of computer science and engineering, who co-authored the paper, used a millimeter-wave radar sensor — the same type of technology used in self-driving cars, motion detectors and 5G wireless networks — to explore the potential for compact, radar-based devices that could be miniaturized to fit inside everyday objects like pens. The transcription accuracy could be further improved, researchers said, by incorporating context-based manual corrections, such as adjusting certain words or phrases, when prior knowledge of the conversation is available.
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