I don't want to start a new thread so I will use this thread for various
technical hacks that I know about.
www.qorvus.com shows a picture of their meshbox. They use a mini-itx connected to a Molex DC-DC converter from
www.short-circuit.com. The DC-DC converter is powered from a POE box.
Build your own car PC/MP3 player using M10000 Via mini-itx motherboards and
www.short-circuit.com DC-DC converter that runs of your car battery. Install your flavour of motion detection software for WinXP. Attach a LG C1100 GPRS enabled cellphone (R450 from Game Nelspruit) to the serial port. The moment there is motion anywhere the camera points to, a picture is sent to your PC at home or to your cellphone's screen via WAP. Using a mini-itx motherboard with two serial ports you can add a GPS to the second port - building your own surveillance system.
www.short-circuit.com has LCD displays for incar movies. Use a USB-to-Rs232 converter for a
RS232 based GPS or use a USB enabled GPS.
www.mini-box.com manufactures the DC-DC drives which can handle the full inductive kickback of an engine crank.
www.short-circuit.com is a distributor of mini-box.com DC-DC power supplies.
In a hijacking situation the tracking company can get a picture of the person
behind the steering wheel via GPRS. And if the hijacker rips out the camera or
M10000 PC then the transponder is activated enabling the car to be tracked from a helicopter on the radio signal alone.
Netstar and Tracker discourages people from putting 'this car is protected by Tracker' on their bumper. I agree with them, if everybody starts doing this the hijackers simply won't believe it after a while.
Take the generic sign on the back of a truck:'Protected by satellite surveillance system'. Nobody believes it anymore.
In contrast everybody knows that every single Telkom/Escom bakkie has a
tracking device and thus none of their vehicles gets hijacked. So I propose setting up a company to whom you must prove that you
do have a tracking device in your car. They will place your registration number on the Internet where anybody can go and lookup your car details. So before the hijacker takes your car he can first lookup the registration number - and determine if you have a tracking device or not.
Tracker and Netstar will spin you a story that you should not do this because then the hijacker will kill you outright before you have a chance to press the panic button. Well then why are they not shooting Telkom drivers then ?
You must always try and determine what is a persons agenda where there is money involved. No anti-hijack system is perfect. With commercial companies like Tracker/Netstar they first have to look at various factors such as
the 'human perception factor'. I just don't think that from a phsycological perspective that my idea would go down well with a lot of people not capable of clear,rational reasoning.
Improving on the www.eblockwatch.co.za concept.
In 99% of cases a person being attacked is within a 100m radius of his vehicle. Carry a panic button that will send a signal on the 433mhz band to the
www.viaembedded.com/www.mini-itx.com M10000 PC connected to the LG C1100 or
www.roundsolutions.com GPRS enabled cellphone in your car. The PC in turn sends out a SOS with the car's GPS coordinates to
www.eblockwatch.co.za or anybody else.
In everysingle farm attack the assailants either escape via the farmers bakkie or via the bushes. Track them in the bushes with a bloodhound. By installing an embedded PC with a continually enabled GPRS connection in the bakkie and publishing your registration number on a website ie.
www.donthijackme.co.za attackers would leave your vehicle alone to begin with.
Install an alarm type keypad in the centre of the dashboard interfaced with the Rs-232 port of an embedded PC. The car won't start nor allow the bonnet to be opened unless the correct key combination has been typed in. This keypad enables a duress system to be implemented. If a crook forces you to open the bonnet or enable the cars ignition a GPRS/SMS signal is sent to the base station. (Any car security system can be circumvented if you can open the bonnet. Once the bonnet is open place 12v on the actuating solenoid on the diesel pump enabling the diesel to flow through the dieselpump and the crook to drive away with the car without the cars electronics knowing about it.)
www.roundsolutions.com has a patent on detecting wether 900mhz is being jammed or not. A crook will simply jam the 900mhz spectrum making it impossible for the cellphone to detect any signal. Roundsolutions.com pulls in a relay which you can connect to the panic button of
www.tracker.co.za/www.netstar.co.za. So you must insist on a panic button for your Tracker/Netstar tracking device.
GPRS is so cheap that the cellphone can send a signal every 5min to it's basestation. Should the GPRS signal not come through, emergency measures can be mplemented.
Question:
What is the minimum data packet that can be sent via GPRS?
Implement facial recognition software to determine if the driver behind the wheel is the owner or not. A car jacker's face will trigger an alert with his realtime picture delivered to the basestation via GPRS. The PC only records movement inside the car, should the hijacker ripout the camera the movement he made just before this will be sent to the basestation via GPRS.
Nokia has implemented facial recognition in their phones to authenticate the user
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16331.php
And this same technology can be used to authenticate the driver behind a wheel.!
3vr sells facial recognition software for $1000 per camera.
http://www.3vr.com/
http://www.facerec.com/support_downloads.html
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6049225.html
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6030085.html?tag=nl
http://www.epic.org/privacy/surveillance/spotlight/1105/aclu0302.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facial_recognition
http://www.soundalert.com/cctv2.htm
http://www.soundalert.com/pdfs/cctv_frt_white_paper1.pdf
http://www.irc.atr.jp/~mlyons/facial_expression.html
http://research.microsoft.com/vision
With
www.short-circuit.com DC-DC converter,embedded PC,Sqlite database and
www.python.org route plotting can be done to such a high precision that a driver just stopping at the wrong coordinates will trigger an alarm.
False alarms is a major problem for tracking companies. If the concerned husband can simply e-mail the face of the driver behind the wheel one might just get a better response from them. It's easy to critise Tracker or Netstar for slack performance - how about you actually help them by playing your part - install a M10000 PC/GPRS/GPS in your car. Tracking companies operate under severe cost restraints and can't implement these customised solutions for every client. One must realise the limitations inherent in their industry and calmly think of solutions to the benefit of everybody.
I know of a farmer that was shot dead , 5hours after the event Tracker got his bakkie - hopelessly to late. But it wasn't
Trackers fault - they were notified only hours after the attack. By implementing the 'smart electronics' as I have
described and publishing the registration number on the net, we might have prevented this attack.
Replace the dashboard with Lexar bulletproof glass that has been cut to fit. The only place a tracking device can be
put is the dashboard of the bakkie. And all crookes do is smash it to pieces and ripout the tracking devices. Connected to
the bulletproofed glass is a vibration sensor that detects an attempt at smashing through the glass. South-African conditions require a rethink of the situation like the Americans had to replace their humvees with SA built explosive proof
troop carriers.
