The meddlers over at the camera hacking forum have been abusing our favorite CVS product once again. You can now unlock your single use digital camera without any hardware modes. Last week [Sailpix] discovered that Pure Digital had left their FTP server wide open. He found an interesting app on it and discovered the way the challenge/response keys were generated. It was only a matter of time before other hackers like [BillW] were able to use a little brute force and create a software app to generate the correct response keys. You can download the app here. BillW wrote it based entirely on Sailpix’s description of the algo, not the original code. App works for the type-04 camcorder as well.

[thanks [removed by request]]

UPDATE: CameraHacking.com has removed the original thread at Pure Digital’s request.

Continue reading “CVS Camera Software Unlock” →

[Jared Bouck] certainly has a unique project on his hands this time. He started out wanting to build a somewhat complex system for visualizing Cherenkov radiation. With a little investigation he found some new ideas and decided to build a really compact apparatus. Cherenkov radiation is seen as a blue flash when a particle passes through a medium at a speed greater than the speed of light in the medium. Jared used a webcam CCD as the medium and a small piece of radioactive americium sourced from a smoke detector. The camera housing is sealed from any light leaks and is shielded to block EMI. Watching the camera output you can see flashes of white and blue streaks.  It’s a neat home built demo and I bet it could be used as a random number generator as well. In the real world, scientists use Cherenkov radiation detection to determine fission reaction intensity, measure radioactivity in spent fuel rods, and detect the origin of cosmic rays. Similar techniques are used in neutrino detectors like the massive IceCube project.

Continue reading “Alpha Radiation Visualizer” →

[Igor Carron] pointed out that Derrick Parkhurst and his colleagues at Iowa State have been hard at work improving their lightweight eye tracker that we covered in January. The new version uses digital cameras instead of analog ones. This time they’ve included step by step build instructions instead of just a PDF describing the device. Most of the build involves removing the CCD from a couple cheap webcams and then building an extension back to the board. All of this work is part of the Human and Computer Vision Laboratory’s open-source openEyes project. If you want a quick intro into how this type of eye tracking works I suggest reading our previous post.

Continue reading “Updated Lightweight Eye Tracker” →

Sorry, this is coming in so late. The last 24 hours have been

[Jussi Saarijoki] had a broken LCD monitor and decided to use it as a photography light instead of letting it sit on his shelf of “oblivion”. Only the panel was broken; the cold cathode and diffuser were still intact. He stripped off all of the outer casing and pulled the broken panel. After reassembling he did a couple test shots. The large panel works really well for providing ambient light and making shadows a lot less harsh.

Continue reading “Macro Photography Light From Broken LCD Monitor” →

[joevennix]’s digital picture frame for Mother’s day is really an update to a previous how-to he wrote. The original shows you how to build a digital photo frame using a Juicebox media player.  His version doesn’t require the MP3 addon (it would make it easier) since he connects the SD card directly to the header. His latest features a much better case and hideaway controls. He admits that he still can’t cut a matte worth a darn.

Continue reading “Juicebox Digital Picture Frame For Mom” →

So, you’ve got an itching desire to inflate 150 helium balloons, but have no idea what to do with them afterwards? Well, readers Stefan and Michel decided to build a simple aluminum frame to mount a cheap digital camera and do some aerial photography. Instead of building a complex timing system they just attached a strong motor from a security camera. It’s powered by a AA and is geared really low so it only triggers the shutter every 12 seconds. They deployed the rig from the fortifications surrounding Wilemstad in the Netherlands. There are several pictures of the city (and the occasional envious child) on their site. If you follow the “continue reading” link you’ll see a couple more pictures of the camera mount.

Continue reading “Helium Balloon Aerial Photography” →