The old Mission: Impossible TV series, secret agents received their missions via recordings that would self-destruct shortly after receipt. It was an effective method of keeping those secret missions private – as far as we know, the baddies never got ahold of any mission tapes, allowing the agents to successfully carry out their campaigns against evil.

These days, data is shared far more frequently and in so many ways it’s kind of mind-blowing. Even sensitive digital information is vulnerable to hackers, disgruntled employees, and the general public in some unintentional cases. Artist Diego Trujillo Pisanty has created an art piece that takes us back to a simpler time when data breaches were far less common because hard copies of documents are so much harder to steal than digital copies.

This Tape Will Self Destruct is a small printer that perfectly mixes the past and the present. It prints fictional Cold War images and texts with excerpts of actual NSA documents brought into the public eye by Edward Snowden. Shortly after the printer spits out its meaningless message, the paper self-ignites and fire consumes the printout, permanently erasing its information.

The project is an insightful exploration of the relationship we have with secrecy and data sharing. We expect to be informed at all times, but government agencies argue that some secrecy is necessary for national security. This little printer hearkens back to the pre-digital age when having information meant having a piece of paper in your hands or a memory in your mind rather than words on a screen or hard drive.

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Information security concerns are at an all-time high in America, especially with people like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden exposing secrets that were never meant to reach the public’s ears. Artist duo Kyle McDonald and Brian House built a project that they hope will raise awareness of the lack of privacy we all experience in public. They call it the Conversnitch, and it’s a little scary just how easily they were able to install it in public places.

The Conversnitch cost less than $100 to produce. Unless you’re extremely observant, it looks just like a regular light fixture or lamp – but it’s much more than that. The device contains a microphone and a mini computer, as well as a light bulb to help it blend into its surroundings. It is housed in a plastic flowerpot, so upon close inspection it would probably be obvious that it is no ordinary light bulb.

The spying tool captures conversations happening near it and uses the nearest open wi-fi network to send the information to Mechanical Turk, Amazon’s crowdsourcing platform. They pay workers to transcribe conversation snippets, then they post them to Coversnitch’s Twitter account. The conversations that the Conversnitch was able to capture were truly shocking. People revealed personal details and expressed opinions that they may not have wanted exposed to the public.

McDonald and House didn’t set out to do anything illegal; they simply wanted to demonstrate how easy it is for anyone to listen in on any conversation. They were able to install the Coversnitch in some very public places without any question from passers-by, though one individual did look a bit suspicious as one of the artists installed the device in a restaurant. According to the artists, one of their goals was to warn people that their conversations, no matter how sensitive, are never necessarily truly private.

(via: Wired)

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If a fat gold chain or Jesus piece isn’t the type of thing you would want hanging around your neck, designer Jess Hunt might catch your interest with the Twitch. Like any good spy camera, the Twitch wears a disguise: that of a pendant.

It’s a four megapixel digital camera encased in wood and attached to a silver chain. It’s extremely user-friendly; you just lift it off your chest, twist to focus and snap away. A built-in accelerometer automatically turns the camera on. It’s a simple twist on the typical over-complicated digital camera.

We have to wonder, though, what the point of the manual focus is when there is no viewfinder. The designer doesn’t mention how the photos are stored, but we suppose a micro SD card is hiding in the big, chunky part of the pendant. Made of European beech and polished aluminum, it’s truly a lovely piece of jewelry, even if the camera function is a bit confusing.

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Skyping and FaceTime have helped people communicate in whole new ways, but there are still some frontiers that have yet to be explored. PairASight is a technology that allows other people to see what you’re seeing in real time. Kind of like the glasses you sees spies or gamblers wearing in movies, the PairASight camera streams real-time video and two-way audio. The information goes to the user’s smartphone and can then be sent to anywhere in the world.

The technology has fascinating possibilities in fields like healthcare and auto repair. Want to know if that piece of your engine is supposed to look like that? Put on your PairASight glasses and connect with your mechanic to see if everything is cool or if you’ll be shelling out big money for repairs soon. We think it could even be used in education settings, with the teacher demonstrating correct techniques from the point of view the students will eventually see on their own.

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With the ever-evolving cycle of technology as ubiquitous as it is today, one must consider its roots as a compare/contrast historical account. A very important aspect of that cycle is the combining of technologies for both professional and novel employments. Take the cell phone. The first camera was put in one in 2000 and now nearly every cell phone built today contains a camera. Man and science have both had a curiosity, primarily voyeuristic in nature, with embedding a camera into other everyday ephemera.

One of the first modern ideas in this realm was to create a watch that could take photographs. Both espionage and entertainment were equal factors in the development. With patents originating in 1907, and later marketed as the “Ticka”, a pocket watch with a concealed camera was the first foray into this phenomenon. This peculiar little Ian Flemming-inducing wonder included a dummy face. Set at seven minutes past ten, it indicated the viewing angle, making it possible to use without the removable viewfinder.

In 1939, Japanese inventor Jujiro Ichiki created the world’s first wristwatch camera. It featured 36 exposures with one film loading. One early magazine article exclaimed “What a wonderful devise this would be for a spy!”

During the Cold War, the Protona Minifon P55 recording chronograph wristwatch was an interesting example of the hidden camera craze. It featured a carrying case used to disguise the recording unit, which was separate from the watch itself. The need to capture that certain moment has become something that is standard in life. The fact that cameras are standard in most cell phones today is proof that early editions like the Ticka or Protona Minifon were more than just a fad.

The post Camera Phone’s Granddaddy: Antique Camera Wristwatches first appeared on Gajitz.