Technology @lemmy.world Andrew @andrew.masto.host 2mo ago

Bop Spotter: "a box high up on a pole somewhere in the Mission. Inside is a crappy Android phone, set to Shazam constantly, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's solar powered, and the mic is pointed

Bop Spotter: "a box high up on a pole somewhere in the Mission. Inside is a crappy Android phone, set to Shazam constantly, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's solar powered, and the mic is pointed down at the street below"

https://walzr.com/bop-spotter

@technology

16 comments

Jeez, we have surveillance hobbyists now.
- If you want to see someone who really deserves that title, check out Brendan O'Connor's talk about the CreepyDOL project at DEFCON 21. Nice reminder of how much information most of us are leaking in the RF spectrum for anybody interested in listening and piecing things together.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvxD7p4Suw
  
  For anyone that's interested.
- Been a thing for all long time. See police scanners. Unfortunately going the way of the past as cops hide their coms with encryption to be even less accountable.
  
  Also because boy racers and other assorted scrotes would listen in.
I love this. I feel like the internet used to be full of these crazy little art projects.
Now that it's a thing, UMG is going to find that corner and start shaking people down for performance royalties.
Scrolling through the list. The timestamps are too regular, meaning it is interpreting a lot of ambient noise as music.
- Or it's a contrived post with fake data
  
  Very possible. But wanted to presume bad coding over outright falsification.
- You can listen to the recording of each entry by clicking on it. Sometimes it does seem to be only noise but maybe the machine has better hearing than I do...
Good share
This is right on the line of creepy surveillance and interesting public art project. I kind of like the idea but not a fan of the fact that it's recording in stealth. I wish it were more transparent about it. Most people wouldn't care anyway and it removes some of the discomfort of listening in on a bunch of strangers.
- I have no issue with the stealth part given that it can only recognise audio which is already publicly available. If you don’t want people to know what you’re listening to, just don’t play it loudly in public.
  
  This project also wouldn’t be possible if people were aware of it (it would just be gamed and certainly removed).
Scroll down and listen to the recording for Never Gonna Give You Up. Someone knows where that box is.

16 comments