4 ms·

One fun psychological hack for this - paint an eye above or on said locker. This is backed by research. For example: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-2

One fun psychological hack for this - paint an eye above or on said locker. This is backed by research. For example: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-22270052 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-22270052

samstave 8y ago
@jdb here on HN had, at one time, installed a very conspicuous camera housing on his house although it had no camera in it. Psychological deterrence.
- ChuckMcM 8y ago
  It would be fun to have it do motion tracking (could use directional audio to track). It always freaks people out when a camera like device is following their movement.
  - rdtsc 8y ago
    "Ooh! I'll take the package and the fancy tracking camera" :-)
    - ChuckMcM 8y ago
      Yeah, this is why I would be a lousy package thief, I'd love to find a cool gizmo like this and take it apart and figure out how it works. Not some boring iPad or game console :-) If you wonder "Who would carry a portable spectrum analyzer while walking along a street of Christmas light displays in order to see what wireless systems were being employed to control them?" that would be me.
    - theon144 8y ago
      takes out a screw-driver, begins lengthy and conspicuous disassembly process (-:
      - samstave 8y ago
        Actually I've always wondered about such a heist. If I were going to pull off a heist in broad daylight, I'd get some cones and print a Rolex logo on a safety vest and pull a van up to the Rolex town clock in Carmel and "take it in for repairs" in broad daylight.
    - samstave 8y ago
      Anyone have directions to the actual factory??
  - lozaning 8y ago
    Wyze cam Pan will do this for 30 bucks if you're looking for a product and not a tinkering project.
  - kbenson 8y ago
    At the point we're talking about a fake camera, directional audio is probably overkill. Just put one of those cheap motion trackers up that turns on lights and hook it up to a relatively loud actuator that shows that camera moving very slowly for 3-4 seconds. Sound to draw attention if they didn't already see it, movement so they think it's smart enough to track them or someone is controlling it, and it looks like a camera so they think they are being recorded.
    - jjeaff 8y ago
      Or just get an actual camera and set it to track back and forth. Most of them have that option.
      - kbenson 8y ago
        Yeah, at this point wifi cameras are cheap enough there's not really a reason not to just put a real one up instead of this. 15-30 years ago this might have been a good strategy though. Back then any sort of network enabled camera was kinda pricey, as well as the system to run it.
        cr0sh 8y ago
        While not the cheapest, the best wifi camera I've found so far was to build one from a RasPi Zero W, and install motionEyeOS on it. From there, you could add simple motion tracking (OpenCV or something like that - there's enough in the distro to easily do blob tracking) and command a servo to track. Total cost for the basic camera setup (not the tracking extra) was around $60.00 - and you don't have to pay for a cloud service or anything like that (I just have it email me the images), plus it's open source, so you can vet the codebase if you need or want.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- jdblair 8y ago
  Actually, it had a camera. It was an ordinary webcam but it was mounted in a very conspicuous, conventional security camera housing.
- reaperducer 8y ago
  a very conspicuous camera housing on his house although it had no camera in it. Radio Shack used to sell these in the 80's. A guy I knew who worked at one said easily half of the cameras in his mall were fake RS shells.
fludlight 8y ago
Full text of the article cited on the author's website: https://www.danielnettle.org.uk/download/131.pdf https://www.danielnettle.org.uk/download/131.pdf
Strilanc 8y ago
This is one of the psychology results that failed to replicate [1] in the replication crisis [2]. [1]: Artificial surveillance cues do not increase generosity: two meta-analyses https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513816301350 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S109051381... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 8y ago
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qblv 8y ago
Reminds of 1984. Big brother is watching

samstave 8y ago

@jdb here on HN had, at one time, installed a very conspicuous camera housing on his house although it had no camera in it. Psychological deterrence.

ChuckMcM 8y ago
It would be fun to have it do motion tracking (could use directional audio to track). It always freaks people out when a camera like device is following their movement.
- rdtsc 8y ago
  "Ooh! I'll take the package and the fancy tracking camera" :-)
  - ChuckMcM 8y ago
    Yeah, this is why I would be a lousy package thief, I'd love to find a cool gizmo like this and take it apart and figure out how it works. Not some boring iPad or game console :-) If you wonder "Who would carry a portable spectrum analyzer while walking along a street of Christmas light displays in order to see what wireless systems were being employed to control them?" that would be me.
  - theon144 8y ago
    takes out a screw-driver, begins lengthy and conspicuous disassembly process (-:
    - samstave 8y ago
      Actually I've always wondered about such a heist. If I were going to pull off a heist in broad daylight, I'd get some cones and print a Rolex logo on a safety vest and pull a van up to the Rolex town clock in Carmel and "take it in for repairs" in broad daylight.
  - samstave 8y ago
    Anyone have directions to the actual factory??
- lozaning 8y ago
  Wyze cam Pan will do this for 30 bucks if you're looking for a product and not a tinkering project.
- kbenson 8y ago
  At the point we're talking about a fake camera, directional audio is probably overkill. Just put one of those cheap motion trackers up that turns on lights and hook it up to a relatively loud actuator that shows that camera moving very slowly for 3-4 seconds. Sound to draw attention if they didn't already see it, movement so they think it's smart enough to track them or someone is controlling it, and it looks like a camera so they think they are being recorded.
  - jjeaff 8y ago
    Or just get an actual camera and set it to track back and forth. Most of them have that option.
    - kbenson 8y ago
      Yeah, at this point wifi cameras are cheap enough there's not really a reason not to just put a real one up instead of this. 15-30 years ago this might have been a good strategy though. Back then any sort of network enabled camera was kinda pricey, as well as the system to run it.
      - cr0sh 8y ago
        While not the cheapest, the best wifi camera I've found so far was to build one from a RasPi Zero W, and install motionEyeOS on it. From there, you could add simple motion tracking (OpenCV or something like that - there's enough in the distro to easily do blob tracking) and command a servo to track. Total cost for the basic camera setup (not the tracking extra) was around $60.00 - and you don't have to pay for a cloud service or anything like that (I just have it email me the images), plus it's open source, so you can vet the codebase if you need or want.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
jdblair 8y ago
Actually, it had a camera. It was an ordinary webcam but it was mounted in a very conspicuous, conventional security camera housing.
reaperducer 8y ago
a very conspicuous camera housing on his house although it had no camera in it. Radio Shack used to sell these in the 80's. A guy I knew who worked at one said easily half of the cameras in his mall were fake RS shells.

fludlight 8y ago

Full text of the article cited on the author's website: https://www.danielnettle.org.uk/download/131.pdf https://www.danielnettle.org.uk/download/131.pdf

Strilanc 8y ago

This is one of the psychology results that failed to replicate [1] in the replication crisis [2]. [1]: Artificial surveillance cues do not increase generosity: two meta-analyses https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513816301350 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S109051381... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis

deleted 8y ago
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deleted 8y ago

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qblv 8y ago

Reminds of 1984. Big brother is watching