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Hacker with iPhone takes over Times Square screens

alexandrosmaragos.com

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Re: Hacker with iPhone takes over Times Square screens

#41

Post by jcl »

lt wrote: post #9
pyre wrote: post #3

I'm waiting for the explanation. It looks cool, but the description sounds like a Hollywood understanding of computers: > the transmitter instantly sends the video signal to the video > repeater and the video repeater overrides any video screen > that it's being held next to It almost sound like they are hacking from some computer with six monitors and an interactive 3d OS. I'll be waiting for the explanation of the…

The odds of it being real are not looking too good. Apart of all the handwaving on how the override work, there's many others technical issues with it. For example, videos played from the camera roll wouldn't be outputted to the audio jack.

Also, the digital "interference" shown during the transitions is pretty, but it's not technically feasible... Sometimes it has horizontal scanlines, sometimes vertical, sometimes scaled chunks, etc. There's no codec or transmission method that would have artifacts like that.

This is just someone showing off their After Effects skills.

Re: Hacker with iPhone takes over Times Square screens

#42

Post by justincormack »

mikemoka wrote: post #37

this is not an hoax, I think those video streams have to be updated remotely, maybe he figured out the protocol and the transmission frequency

They do have internet access, not some random radio update protocol.

When I wrote the software for the Coke and Samsung screens in Picadilly Circus in London (the times square equivalent) we used wired internet or brought hard drives in. We did actually have wifi access (firewalled though) to ground level.

All running Linux then. Alas i didnt get a photo of the one time we got a bootup screen on the sign with penguin after a power cut.

Re: Hacker with iPhone takes over Times Square screens

#45

Post by nkassis »

gooberdlx wrote: post #27

So a few things... the video through the audio jack, probably not at the rate that the video is displaying... Notice also in the begininng demonstrations that he has to get the device super close to the screen in order for it "to work"... and when he moves it less than a foot away, it stops. Now.. when he ties it to the balloon, it would require that the balloon would happen to fly within less than a foot of the scre…

I'm 100% sure it's fake but on the 4 screen example, we have a setup like that here at work. They have a daisy chain board on them that is used to chain the inputs together and the screen is set to only display a certain section of the image (the daisy chain board do the interpolation or whatever is needed) so if it was even possible to send that signal which I doubt very much, the screens would only show their portion.

Re: Hacker with iPhone takes over Times Square screens

#46

Post by calloc »

blackmac wrote: post #12
pyre wrote: post #3

I'm waiting for the explanation. It looks cool, but the description sounds like a Hollywood understanding of computers: > the transmitter instantly sends the video signal to the video > repeater and the video repeater overrides any video screen > that it's being held next to It almost sound like they are hacking from some computer with six monitors and an interactive 3d OS. I'll be waiting for the explanation of the…

Sounds fake to me, this is not possible with the iPhone through default software and even with a jailbreak there is no way you could ever cram the video through the headphone jack, you would have to play it back through a very specialized app, that would need to compress it down to an unrecognizable mess and you still would have to figure out a way to push it to the screens. Not possible IMHO.

I know on the old iPod's with video out you could get an RCA cable that went from 3.5 mm to AV cables:

http://www.macworld.com/article/149335/2005/11/apple_ipod_av...

Re: Hacker with iPhone takes over Times Square screens

#47

Post by calloc »

Terretta wrote: post #21

Clever production, but wildly implausible: video frequency through audio DAC (best video compression in the world is still a postage stamp if you're trying to fit through a dial up modem); device sorts out screen characteristics; device sorts out picture should be split across four monitors; device so "powerful" to take over jumbotron yet so weak it has to be inches from bus stop screen, etc.

Or an older iPod video that has a video out on the 3.5 mm jack.

http://www.macworld.com/article/149335/2005/11/apple_ipod_av...

Re: Hacker with iPhone takes over Times Square screens

#48

Post by orblivion »

pyre wrote: post #3

I'm waiting for the explanation. It looks cool, but the description sounds like a Hollywood understanding of computers: > the transmitter instantly sends the video signal to the video > repeater and the video repeater overrides any video screen > that it's being held next to It almost sound like they are hacking from some computer with six monitors and an interactive 3d OS. I'll be waiting for the explanation of the…

The "hacker" is claiming that every video system works the same. That's crap.

Re: Hacker with iPhone takes over Times Square screens

#49

Post by [deleted] »

starnix17 wrote: post #10
jrockway wrote: post #4

99% chance this is just a Photoshop. The blog is about "visuals", not hacking or computer security, and I doubt that being a graphics designer is the key to figuring out how to transmit video to a Times Square video screen.

I agree, in the video it's kind of surprising how no one notices it.

[deleted]

Re: Hacker with iPhone takes over Times Square screens

#50

Post by ovi256 »

jrockway wrote: post #4

99% chance this is just a Photoshop. The blog is about "visuals", not hacking or computer security, and I doubt that being a graphics designer is the key to figuring out how to transmit video to a Times Square video screen.

I call bullshit too. I know a bit of electronics, and the transmitter that's plugged into the iPhone looks like a nonsensical circuit: it has something that looks like a transformer (the big black box with an horizontal metal frame that would be the magnetic loop), 2 quartz rezonators (the 2 small vertical rectangular-with-rounded ends metal things next to each other), a red LED (that's off!) and a switch on top left. I'm pretty sure the white plastic horizontal rectangle at the bottom is a capacitor. Actually, if what I first said are quartz crystals are rectifiers, this thing would be a power supply! The wires hanging on the right are the 110 volt leads. You can even see the thicker copper tracks on the circuit board that lead to the transformer. Also, the bit that goes into the iPhone (what port does it go in btw ?) looks just like a metal bit, not a cable or jack.

There's also the hand waving. Usually experimenters are so proud of their puppies that they can't wait to publish the schematics.

Finally, the author is a film maker. Film maker get it ? He made a cool fake film, kudos to him, that's what he's good at, and he got us to talk about it.

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