Road/driving tracking devices
from Dust0741@lemmy.world to privacy@lemmy.ml on 22 Feb 14:29
https://lemmy.world/post/43451699
from Dust0741@lemmy.world to privacy@lemmy.ml on 22 Feb 14:29
https://lemmy.world/post/43451699
Does anyone know more about these devices? Some are obviously cameras, but the others are likely some radio scanning, potentially BLE, but I don’t know. Anyone know?
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Another similar device:
<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/90202518-84da-495b-a180-882b103ac38b.jpeg">
I work for a company that makes security cameras and we also make radars as a supplement to the cameras. The purpose of the radar is to tell PTZ cameras where objects are so they can pan/rotate to the correct spot as quickly as possible.
In this case these look like fixed cameras so I don’t think it’s a radar.
I would assume, considering the climate these cameras are in that this is some kind of weather sensor.
Considering the size of it, it probably has a few features to it.
Doesn’t look like any weather sensor is there to me.
Surface Temperature sensors (infrared) look like cameras or like a brick with a hole in it as well and are used for efficient winter maintenance
My country have them as well (it is a kit from a local provider). But of course my country sneeky deployed a Chinese smart cloud cam on top as well (a Hikvision Cam).
You even see the hikvison cam on the Website of decentlab, but when you click on the kit, you see, that the cam is not part of it.
Perhaps it’s a bit pedantic, but I’d consider that a road sensor not a weather sensor. Road condition and a webcam is related to weather but not one of the primary instruments like a barometer, anemometer, thermometer, rain gauge, etc.
I see what you’re saying though, it could be one of those road sensors.
<img alt="" src="https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/94d29550-8407-46ed-be71-7ab489c71140.webp">
The large flat one looks like radar to me. I hadn’t heard of radar being used with PTZ cameras. But you can also use it standalone to measure traffic flow.
If it isn’t radar, it’s something with a large, flat antenna (probably a phased array). The other two options I can think of are a long-range RFID scanner or a point-to-point network connection.
Yeah it’s quite hard to tell. The shape is kinda generic so anything could be behind all that plastic!
Because of how wide and thin it is, it looks like a phased antenna array to me. It’s a way to create cheaper, performant antennas. You see this form factor with a bunch of RF applications in UHF to EHF range.
Here’s an example of a random mmWave radar board. Imagine a plastic case over this to keep out dust and rain.
<img alt="15042" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/8076b7e9-88ae-442e-8f11-b6de5e02bb35.jpeg">
alibaba.com/…/60Ghz-long-distance-Millimeter-wave…
A quick search for “traffic sensor” returns a whole class of items that all basically look like the rectangular brick in your photo. Supported by the temporary / construction look of the one in the other comment.
Construction company puts in a lane restriction or other traffic modification, plop down a traffic sensor to make sure cars are still flowing through properly.
I have no proof, but I suspect some of them will identify your car by your ezpass. (a brief pause) Did a search, and yup. You’re carrying a tracking device, of course they are going to use it to track you
https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/newly-obtained-records-reveal-extensive-monitoring-e-zpass
The white brick at the bottom is for detecting large objects (cars) and is either controlling a traffic signal, or is being used to count traffic going through that spot.
An intersection near me uses them to switch the lights at an intersection where traffic almost never comes from, so a timed light is unnecessary, but important traffic still comes from that direction.
Road guy Rob has a video that came out yesterday and in it they discuss the bottom one being a radar alternative for loops in the ground for cars to change the lights.
Dunno if you’re in America but here’s a site with a map of known flock cameras if you want to check if that one is part of the network
deflock.org
Disclaimer: this list is not comprehensive.
this list is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.
I do not believe it’s a flock though. I’m not even sure it’s an alpr, but it likely is.
It also is mobile, so do I bother marking it on deflock?
Edit: the main picture is not mobile, but there are variants including my other comment that are mobile.
.
Hopefully it can stay up. Reportedly Flock has been very aggressive about trying to take these sites down with DMCA complaints toward hosting providers and things like that.
I cannot get out of my neighborhood without passing a Flock camera. This pisses me TF off.
But there have been successes. In some cities in Oregon, California, other states too. The community has come together to put pressure on the city government to cancel the contracts. We don’t have to accept this. We can fight back against dragnet surveillance. It takes community effort and grassroots organization but we can do it.
Btw, the white box in a supermarket ceiling is to ID you and track your movement based on your phone.
Looks cold, a thermite module would help.
The photo has at least three separate surveillance systems that don’t talk to each other — but can be correlated after the fact.
The cameras are almost certainly FLOCK Safety LPR units. OCR every plate, real-time hot list alerts, data retained and licensed to law enforcement. deflock.org (already linked) maps the known network.
The white brick is a radar vehicle presence detector for traffic signal control — it replaced inductive loops cut into asphalt. Pure object detection, no identity data, not part of any surveillance network. SARGE had this right.
The layer nobody’s mentioned: if you’re carrying an EZPass or any RFID toll transponder, it broadcasts a unique ID to any reader in range — including private ones. The ACLU documented this years ago (bitteroldcoot’s link). Your transponder doesn’t know it’s not a toll plaza.
Three separate data streams. The surveillance picture isn’t one device — it’s three systems that can be joined on timestamp and location after the fact by anyone with access to any one of them. The white brick is genuinely just traffic engineering. The other two aren’t.
From left to right, top to bottom: 2 fixed box cameras (most likely 2 generations of ALPRs: an older (larger/yellowed: which they won’t bother removing, and instead keep for redundancy), and a newer (more capable) model), a ‘Pan Tilt Zoom (PTZ)’, and what appears to be a radar sensor (for detecting objects: possibly serving as a redundancy, during challenging weather conditions). I suspect the radar sensor got installed first (just for perimeter intrusion detection), they added the old ALPR next (to detect patterns in registered license plates); and the rest as an upgrade (including an increased field of view: through the PTZ’s movable head).
I will smash eet.