For those of us who worry about the security of our wireless devices, every now and then something comes along that scares even the already-paranoid. The latest is a device from [Samy] that is able to log the keystrokes from Microsoft keyboards by sniffing and decrypting the RF signals used in the keyboard’s wireless protocol. Oh, and the entire device is camouflaged as a USB wall wart-style power adapter.

The device is made possible by an Arduino or Teensy hooked up to an NRF24L01+ 2.4GHz RF chip that does the sniffing. Once the firmware for the Arduino is loaded, the two chips plus a USB charging circuit (for charging USB devices and maintaining the camouflage) are stuffed with a lithium battery into a plastic shell from a larger USB charger. The options for retrieving the sniffed data are either an SPI Serial Flash chip or a GSM module for sending the data automatically via SMS.

The scary thing here isn’t so much that this device exists, but that encryption for Microsoft keyboards was less than stellar and provides little more than a false sense of security. This also serves as a wake-up call that the things we don’t even give a passing glance at might be exactly where a less-honorable person might look to exploit whatever information they can get their hands on. Continue past the break for a video of this device in action, and be sure to check out the project in more detail, including source code and schematics, on [Samy]’s webpage.

Thanks to [Juddy] for the tip!

[A Raymond] had some free time at work, and decided to spend it on creating a wireless warning sign. According to his blog profile, he is a PhD student in Applied Physics. His lab utilizes a high-powered laser system. His job is to use said system, but only after it’s brought online by faculty scientists. The status of the laser system is changed by a manual switchbox that controls the warning signs wired around the lab entrances. Unfortunately, if you were in the upstairs office, you only knew this after running downstairs to check. [A Raymond's] admitted laziness finally got the better of him – he wanted a sign that displayed the laser’s status from the comfort of the office. He had an old sign he could use, but he wanted a way for it to communicate with the switchbox downstairs. After some thought, he decided Bluetooth was the way to go, using a pair of BlueSMiRF Bluetooth modules from Sparkfun and Arduino Uno R3’s.

He constructed a metal box that intercepted the cable from the main switchbox, mounting one BlueSMiRF and Uno into it. Upon learning that the switchbox sends 12V AC signals over three individual status wires, he half-wave rectified the wires and divided their voltages so that the Uno wouldn’t fry. Instead, it determined which status wire that had active voltage. and sent a “g(reen)”, “y(ellow)”, or “r(ed)” signal continuously via Bluetooth. On the receiving end, [A Raymond] gutted the sign and mounted the other BlueSMiRF and Uno into it along with some green, yellow, and red LEDs. The LEDs light up in response to the corresponding Bluetooth signal.

The result is a warning sign that is always up-to-date with the switchbox’s status. We’ve covered projects using Bluetooth before, from plush birds to cameras- [A Raymond's] wireless sign is in good company. He notes that it’s “missing” a high pitched whining noise when the “Danger” lights are on. If he decides to add an accompanying (annoying) sound, he couldn’t go wrong with something like this. Regardless, we’re sure [A Raymond] is happy that he no longer has to go back and forth between floors before he can use the laser.

We've seen plenty of development boards, but this might be the first that comes with both Bluetooth LE and built-in USB. Tah is the creation of India's Revealing Hour and has been designed to both lower the cost of adding Bluetooth to Arduino projects, but also to connect your smartphone to other devices in the home. For instance, adding an IR shield will enable you to create a universal remote control for appliances and your TV. Even better, is that you can slot the hardware into your games console and use your smartphone as a controller -- in the video embedded after the break, the company uses a smartphone as a substitute PlayStation controller, and there's an Xbox variant that's currently being developed. Naturally, Tah is currently gathering funds over at CrowdSupply, and its makers need $25,000 to begin manufacturing. If you'd like to get your hands on one, then early-bird customers can snag one for $40, while the late-comers will pay 10 dollars more.

Filed under: Wireless

Comments

Source: CrowdSupply

Tags: Arduino, Bluetooth, CrowdSupply, Development Stick, Tah, video

We've seen plenty of development boards, but this might be the first that comes with both Bluetooth LE and built-in USB. Tah is the creation of India's Revealing Hour and has been designed to both lower the cost of adding Bluetooth to Arduino projects, but also to connect your smartphone to other devices in the home. For instance, adding an IR shield will enable you to create a universal remote control for appliances and your TV. Even better, is that you can slot the hardware into your games console and use your smartphone as a controller -- in the video embedded after the break, the company uses a smartphone as a substitute PlayStation controller, and there's an Xbox variant that's currently being developed. Naturally, Tah is currently gathering funds over at CrowdSupply, and its makers need $25,000 to begin manufacturing. If you'd like to get your hands on one, then early-bird customers can snag one for $40, while the late-comers will pay 10 dollars more.

Filed under: Wireless

Comments

Source: CrowdSupply

Tags: Arduino, Bluetooth, CrowdSupply, Development Stick, Tah, video

We've seen plenty of development boards, but this might be the first that comes with both Bluetooth LE and built-in USB. Tah is the creation of India's Revealing Hour and has been designed to both lower the cost of adding Bluetooth to Arduino projects, but also to connect your smartphone to other devices in the home. For instance, adding an IR shield will enable you to create a universal remote control for appliances and your TV. Even better, is that you can slot the hardware into your games console and use your smartphone as a controller -- in the video embedded after the break, the company uses a smartphone as a substitute PlayStation controller, and there's an Xbox variant that's currently being developed. Naturally, Tah is currently gathering funds over at CrowdSupply, and its makers need $25,000 to begin manufacturing. If you'd like to get your hands on one, then early-bird customers can snag one for $40, while the late-comers will pay 10 dollars more.

Filed under: Wireless

Comments

Source: CrowdSupply

For most of us, the only way we can see the strength of a WiFi network is by the familiar signal icon on any given device. Newcastle University School of Architecture doctorate student Luis Hernan, however, has a different method: spirit photography. He's using the new age-y method of capturing someone's aura via electric coronal discharges -- a Kirlian Device -- with a few geeky augmentations (an Arduino Uno board and WiFi Shield, for example) to illustrate how strong a wireless broadcast is with colors. As Wired notes, these components take account of the nearby signal and convert it into color information that's then beamed onto an LED strip; red being the strongest and blue being weaker sections of the network. To create the pictures like what you see above and at the source, Hernan swung the home-made device around after setting up long-exposure shots with a camera. While we can't know for sure, we'd imagine that something with no signal would look a lot like this.

Filed under: Wireless, Science, Alt

Comments

Via: Wired

Source: DigitalEthereal (1), (2)

Tags: Arduino, ArduinoUno, arduinowifi, ArduinoWifiShield, kirliandevice, luishernan, NecastleUniversitySchoolofArchitecture, photography, wifi

For most of us, the only way we can see the strength of a WiFi network is by the familiar signal icon on any given device. Newcastle University School of Architecture doctorate student Luis Hernan, however, has a different method: spirit photography. He's using the new age-y method of capturing someone's aura via electric coronal discharges -- a Kirlian Device -- with a few geeky augmentations (an Arduino Uno board and WiFi Shield, for example) to illustrate how strong a wireless broadcast is with colors. As Wired notes, these components take account of the nearby signal and convert it into color information that's then beamed onto an LED strip; red being the strongest and blue being weaker sections of the network. To create the pictures like what you see above and at the source, Hernan swung the home-made device around after setting up long-exposure shots with a camera. While we can't know for sure, we'd imagine that something with no signal would look a lot like this.

Filed under: Wireless, Science, Alt

Comments

Via: Wired

Source: DigitalEthereal (1), (2)

For most of us, the only way we can see the strength of a WiFi network is by the familiar signal icon on any given device. Newcastle University School of Architecture doctorate student Luis Hernan, however, has a different method: spirit photography. He's using the new age-y method of capturing someone's aura via electric coronal discharges -- a Kirlian Device -- with a few geeky augmentations (an Arduino Uno board and WiFi Shield, for example) to illustrate how strong a wireless broadcast is with colors. As Wired notes, these components take account of the nearby signal and convert it into color information that's then beamed onto an LED strip; red being the strongest and blue being weaker sections of the network. To create the pictures like what you see above and at the source, Hernan swung the home-made device around after setting up long-exposure shots with a camera. While we can't know for sure, we'd imagine that something with no signal would look a lot like this.

Filed under: Wireless, Science, Alt

Comments

Via: Wired

Source: DigitalEthereal (1), (2)

Tags: Arduino, ArduinoUno, arduinowifi, ArduinoWifiShield, kirliandevice, luishernan, NecastleUniversitySchoolofArchitecture, photography, wifi

Gabri295 published on Instructable a tutorial for a project created during his last year of high school.  It’s  an artificial hand controlled by a glove with 5 flex sensors and Arduino Lilypad . The artificial hand reproduces the movements of the hand wearing the glove.

The components you need to control glove are:
• an elastic glove;
• Lilypad Arduino board (there are different versions, which usually only have 4 analog inputs, so pay attention and buy the one in the image);
• Shield to connect the Xbee module;
• 5 Flex sensors;
• 5 resistors: 47 K?;
• battery pack with 3×1.5 V batteries (Lilypad can be powered from 2.7 to 5.5 V, so 4.5 V it’s ok);
• LilyPad FTDI adapter (quite optional).

The materials needed for the robotic hand are:

• a steel structure for the palm of the hand and wood for the fingers;
• Arduino UNO board;
• 5 servomotors;
• to connect the servomotors I used the Robot_Shield from FuturaElettronica, which has also a switching regulator to power the entire circuit, but you can use any shield made for that;
• Shield to connect the XBee module (I made an horrible one, but it’s economic and I needed to make it small because of the size of the Robot_Shield, you can buy even XBee shields which have also pins to connect the servomotors);
• fishing wires;
• 9 V Battery.

Below you can take a look at the schematic and then follow the steps to make one yourself!

If you are anything like [Antoine], you would love to be able to control your PC with a simple hand-held remote control from anywhere in your house. [Antoine] wrote in to tell us about his wireless computer remote that emulates a USB keyboard, making it suitable for any device that uses a USB keyboard.

His blog post is very well written and contains a ton of design information and background on the project. He initially wanting to easily control his PC’s music from anywhere in his house without needing to be within line of site of his computer. The end result is a very handy remote that can be used to change music, video, and even launch applications on his computer. The system consists of a base station for his remote that connects to the computer and acts as a USB keyboard, and the remote itself. The base station uses V-USB on an Arduino to interface with the computer, and VirtualWire to handle the wireless protocol for the remote. For those of you who don’t know about VirtualWire (now superseded by RadioHead), it is a very cool Arduino library that lets you easily use raw wireless interfaces (also called vanilla wireless interfaces).

Without going into too much detail here (be sure to see the actual post for more information), the remote itself was redesigned after the initial proof of concept to maximize battery life. The final power consumption is very impressive, resulting in a battery life of more than two years! This remote system is very well put together and contains many aspects that can easily be reused for other projects.