This made me think of The Thing, a fascinating listening device made by the Soviets that was completely passive until powered remotely. Very difficult to detect when unpowered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)

And then I thought, something similar might be possible for video. Turns out, yep.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8719264

The Eye of Sauron paper does acknowledge the limitations that would likely prevent it from working against such a device. Impressive nonetheless. True privacy/security is just very hard!

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thih9 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The Thing is full of surprises to this day.

> The Thing was designed by Soviet Russian inventor Leon Theremin, best known for his invention of the theremin, an electronic musical instrument.

	▲	walrus01 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		There's also the Moog synthesizer: https://www.google.com/search?q=moog+synthesizer And the Moog company, specializing in high tech products, started by a cousin of the synthesizer guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moog_Inc.
	▲	saidnooneever 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		the rabbit hole goes so much deeper than this 'Thing'. An interesting read is Spy Catchers written by first science officer from MI5 in cold war. he was tasked with reversing listening devices and making them.. it doesnt spill all the beans but givea a good insight into how far they were already then. u can hardly imagine what tech exists now 40-60 years later as electronics and computers have shrunk drastically and infinitely more weird material properties are discovered....

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HolyLampshade 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Seems like the devices they found in the IBM Selectrics during Project GUNMAN (though, same ‘conflict’).

https://media.defense.gov/2021/Jul/13/2002761779/-1/-1/0/LEA...

Haseltine’s The Spy in Moscow Station is also a fascinating account of events.