MIT reads a book without opening it ... implications for the DarkNet?

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a22797/mits-new-device-read-closed-books-using/

A group of researchers from MIT and Georgia Tech have built a device that can see through paper and distinguish ink from blank paper to determine what is written on the sheets. The prototype successfully identified letters printed on the top nine sheets of a stack of paper, and eventually the researchers hope to develop a system that can read closed books that have actual covers.

"The Metropolitan Museum in New York showed a lot of interest in this, because they want to, for example, look into some antique books that they don't even want to touch," said Barmak Heshmat, a research scientist at the MIT Media Lab and author on the new paper, published today in Nature Communications.

The imaging system works by using terahertz radiation, a frequency of light on the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and infrared light. Terahertz radiation is widely used in security screening, and it has a few advantages over other imaging techniques such as X-rays. Specifically, different chemicals absorb different amounts of terahertz radiation, creating a unique frequency signature for each material when the waves bounce back to a sensor, allowing the system to differentiate between ink and blank paper.

Between pages of a book, there are air pockets that measure about 20 micrometers. The system uses short bursts of terahertz radiation waves to distinguish between individual sheets of paper by measuring the difference in the refractive index--the way a material bends light--between the air and the paper. The difference in light wave absorption between the ink and blank paper then allows the the system to produce an image of the written letters.

Multiple algorithms work in conjunction to create a legible image of the print. The first set, developed by MIT, produce the raw imaged based on the signals picked up by the device's sensor. An additional algorithm developed by Georgia Tech takes the often blurry and incomplete raw images and identifies the individual letters.

"It's actually kind of scary," Heshmat said of the letter-interpretation algorithm in a press release. "A lot of websites have these letter certifications [captchas] to make sure you're not a robot, and this algorithm can get through a lot of them."

The biggest challenge to fine-tuning this system so it could read every page of, say, a 200 page book, is canceling out the interference, or "noise," that is picked up by the sensor. Although most of the light waves are either absorbed by ink or paper, or bounced right back to the sensor, some of the radiation bounces back and forth between pages before making its way back to the detector. This interference prevents the current device from counting beyond 20 individual sheets, and it can only read the print on the top nine.

However, advances in terahertz radiation technologies, a relatively new field, could see new devices built in the near future that would be capable of reading pages much deeper in a stack of paper. By both increasing the power of the radiation source and improving the detectors that capture the rebounding signals, the research team is confident that "big promises for imaging new and exciting things" are just on the horizon.

The last line has me a little shaken. They could read a computer screen located 25 meters away behind three walls using only 1000 pound worth of equipment in 2006. That is the stuff that's been made public!


Comments


[6 Points] None:

Tech like this (and probably stuff more powerful than we can even imagine) has been available to the powers that be for a loooong time. I honestly think that no stealth is any match to what the feds have at their fingertips. The only thing allowing DN/mail trafficking activities possible is hiding among the billions of other legit parcels that are passed around each year.


[3 Points] CookyDough:

Customs agencies already can and do use Terahertz scanning to screen packages and other things.

And have you seen this? /r/DarkNetMarkets/comments/4d6y4f/handheld_ftir_raman_scanners_this_is_how_customs/


[2 Points] s-d-o-t-s:

Obviously, vendors will adapt, but tech is getting seriously powerful. Are drone courier deliveries going to be the way of the future? I'm excited and nervous to see where this beautiful path leads.

We've had the mail covers program for 100 fucking years We didn't know about it for a lot of those hundred years.


[1 Points] Vendor_BBMC:

No, this has no implications for DNMs. They aren't printed in a book.

The screen-reading thing you are talking about is a well-known phenomena to me. It's applicable to big old cathode ray tube monitors which give off radiation as the electron beam scans down the screen 60 times a second.

The Russians were known to be able to read computer screens right back in the late 1980s when I was a chemist at a secret government lab. Some of the buildings were only 50 meters from public roads, just inside a double fence.

In Britain we have to pay a "TV license" which funds the BBC (which is advert-free). There are TV detector vans checking addresses to make sure everybody with a television pays. It was well-known in the 1970s that they could even tell which channel you were watching, through walls.

Apologies for all the acronyms.

BBC = British Broadcasting Corporation

BBC = Big Black Cock

BBMC = Brotherhood of British Meth Chemists

Vendor_BBMC = the future controller of DNMs, like a "good" Hitler

The bird = the word


[1 Points] heyfreshhhhh:

In a few years DNMs will no longer work due to tech like this. The other side will be more advanced and we have no chance. Enjoy it while it lasts.