Informatics

Lecture 8 Gadgets and Devices

The Hardware

Introduction
In this lecture we will look at the
gadgets that we carry around with
us and the other hardware that can
create useful data or information
The justification for this, from an
informatics point of view, is as
follows:

Introduction
A gadget may contain a lot of
personal data about us who
owns this and who can access it?
We can get a lot of intelligence
from the data stored on millions of
gadgets e.g. marketing
Gadgets are becoming more
common and powerful.

Introduction
More and more data is being
collected about us from a variety
of sources
It is becoming more common for
data from a variety of sources to
be collated and mined

How big is a gadget?

1GB of memory is
only a few mm2 in
size and so even
tiny gadgets (e.g. a
ring or button) can
easily contain this
amount of memory

What good is 1GB?

Around 1 hour of reasonable
quality video
About 17 hours of good quality
audio
Around 1000 reasonable pictures
Over 100,000 pages of text or data

Example
Of course we sometimes want to
deliberately record a whole series of
events or memories and devices are
being produced for this purpose,
along with the necessary software
and service support:

Example

Autographer Camera:
8GB
Camera activated
by changes in
temperature, light,
acceleration and
direction
GPS location stored

Case studies
Since there is a huge range of
potential hardware to consider we
will only pick out a few key items to
look at in detail either because
they are common or illustrate some
developing capability

1. Mobile phones
Location by GPS or cell or wireless
Unique IMEI number
Camera
Accelerometer
Compass
Data such as texts and contacts
Installed apps

1. Mobile phones
Facebook or Twitter can receive
location data
Uploaded photos have location and
time data embedded
People in photos can be identified
Browsing habits etc. can be
supplied to third parties

1. Mobile phones
Connection and location history
can be stored and accessed
Details of contacts can be revealed
to third parties via apps
Phone communications are very
secure but false base stations can
hijack the channel and listen in

2. Cameras
Many cameras now have GPS and
can network
Similar comments apply to
uploaded pictures as for mobile
phones
Cameras contain operating
systems which are updated
hacking possibilities?

3. Television
TVs are increasingly connected to a
network either directly or via a set
top box
Record of viewing habits
Smart TVs can even detect if
someone is watching and have
microphones and cameras

4. Credit and travel cards

Obviously a complete transaction
record is available which includes
location and time
Increasingly cards contain RFID tags
and so can be detected by readers
even when not in use
Many things we carry will have RFID

5. Cars
Many cars now routinely record all
aspects of their use the equivalent
of a black box.
These data can be accessed either
by a direct connection or via a
connection over the mobile phone
network

5. Cars
A worrying aspect in
terms of the
technology in cars is
now the increasing
use of keyless entry
systems which can
be hacked

6. GPS Systems
GPS systems are now very
common either as accessories or
standard equipment in cars
It is not appreciated that most GPS
systems record location even when
not in use years worth of data is
easily recovered.

The spying game

So far we have considered gadgets
or devices that we will purchase and
carry around
What other information can be
gathered by devices that we
encounter but do not belong to us?

1. CCTV and Traffic Master

In the UK we are the most heavily
monitored nation in Europe
CCTV cameras in cities can be
used with face recognition
getting better
On the road the Traffic Master
cameras can easily identify
registration numbers

2. Drones
We hear of remotely controlled
drones being used in an offensive
manner
They also play a significant role in
surveillance and intelligence
gathering

2. Drones
Most data is of course restricted but
the capability of the surveillance
drones can be inferred
The Reaper drone has a resolution
of about 15cm from 20,000m OK
for vehicles and buildings
A drone is being developed with a
1.8 Giga pixel camera

2. Drones
We need a
resolution of
better than 1cm
to recognise a
face drones
are in
development
that can do this

3. Spy satellites
Satellites can carry much larger
equipment and so can have larger
optics for better resolution
Angle = 1.22*wavelength/diameter

3. Spy satellites
If the Hubble were turned to look
at the Earth it would have a
resolution of 15cm from 569km up
It is therefore most likely that
there are military satellites at a
lower orbit that can recognise
people

So we have data about you

Date

Time

GPS

Speed

People

Places

Action

etc

..

So now we can explore by using data mining and

visualisation

And finallyto get really spooky

It is considered almost certain that
the control systems for the EU and
US electricity grid have been
infiltrated and left with the digital
equivalent of time bombs.ethics?