Graffiti Research Lab Vienna branch brings us the Powerthief, “an alternative powersourcer for those wanting to bring their electronic equipment to use outside.” Complete with source code.

Posted by Evan Roth on Mar 10.09 to grl, grlv, hack, how2, howto, instructables, power, vienna   

 
Saw this on boingboing and made me think it might be a nice FAT/GRL project kind of in the vein of POV Cam – tools for graffiti writers/activists to stay anonymous in the city. This one uses a super bright IR LED array to overwhelm the CCD of the camera. Looks super dorky but the same principle could be applied to under the peak of a baseball cap or through the front of the mesh.

 
Michael Naimark takes the laser approach, describing in his paper different ways to setup lasers to target a camera. I especially like the idea of cheap laser pointers on mini camera tripods to fix the laser on the target and then just leave it there until the battery runs out. Could also be combined with the soon to be released GRLv powerthief as a way to have it everlasting!

 
For embedded systems Infra Red Lasers might be a dope solution. The laser would not be visible to the human eye so it would make finding the source quite difficult – yet it would have the same effect on the camera. They can be made quite easily – it is just a matter of removing the IR blocking filter from the laser pointer and replacing it with some Kodak Wratten 87C (or developed film). Anyway thought I would get some ideas going. Lets make some 2008 era, James Bond worthy tools!

Posted by Theo Watson on Feb 24.08 to 2008, china, freedom, graffiti, grl, grlv, laser, legal, ninjatech, surveillance, tools   

I’m starting to get worried that G.R.L. Vienna might be cooler then us. Here is my evidence:

They have another blog up here that is pretty hot.

Posted by Evan Roth on Jan 03.08 to grl, grlv, vienna