Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/04/21/icamu_mobile_phone_mms_surveillance/
You leave your Nokia smartphone casually lying somewhere - like, watching the unattended dinner on the table - and when you suspect the culprit is there, you send a text to the phone. And it takes a picture!
And then the software sends the picture - or the video - back to you, automatically, via MMS.
Of course, ICamU (designer of the software) is assuming you've loaded this software onto your own phone, and haven't sneakily put it on someone else's. If you did, of course, the software would give itself away, right?
Actually, it seems that isn't right. According to Mobile Gazette: "In addition to stills photos, iCamCU can also send video and audio clips to an MMS-capable phone. Only the remote phone needs to be a Symbian Series 60 device, it can be interrogated with pretty much any MMS-capable handset. Access to the remote Symbian phone can be controlled through caller groups."
And then, the casual reveal: "It is also possible to run the iCamCU software in what amounts to a 'stealth mode on the remote handset'."
You can, then, turn someone else's phone into a webcam if they habitually leave it lying on its side, pointing at something of interest. About the only feature lacking, apart from a remote motion trigger sensor, is a remote control hand to point it where you want to shoot your video or pix.
Next time you see a phone lying about, cover it.
© NewsWireless.net (http://www.newswireless.net)
Growing rumpus over Saddam execution footage (2 January 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/02/saddam_video_rumpus/
Nokia makes the mobile 'a full member of the internet' (12 June 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/12/nokia_pc_techniques/
Nokia trots out jogger-friendly phone (10 May 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05/10/nokia_unveils_5500_sport/
Nokia debuts N series trio (27 April 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/04/27/nokia_n_series_launch/
Surveillance at a crossroads (12 April 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/12/surveillance_at_crossroads/
Heads spy on teachers (10 April 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/10/cctv_teachers/
CCTV staff quizzed over nude art shoot footage (20 March 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/20/cctv_footage/
DRM delayed Nokia's 'iPod' phone (23 February 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/02/23/n91_drm_slippage/
Police store DNA records of 24,000 innocent kids (23 January 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/23/dna_databases/
CCTV Peeping Toms jailed (13 January 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/13/cctv_men_jailed/
Linksys wrestles with wireless webcam (5 January 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/05/linksys_video_ethernet/
Dial MMS for Marijuana (30 December 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/30/mms_marijuana_bust/
Webcam used to 'babysit kids' (29 September 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/29/webcam_kids/