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Neat, finally an easy way of transferring files between devices that doesn't rely on online services -- no clue why we didn't solve that ages ago. Adding encry
by elric 2mo ago
Neat, finally an easy way of transferring files between devices that doesn't rely on online services -- no clue why we didn't solve that ages ago.
Adding encryption shouldn't be hard, as long as you can communicate the keys out of band.
Could probably achieve the same result using audio instead of video, but maybe that would be too annoying?
- kooi 2mo agoAs someone who has implemented acoustic modems (underwater comms)... yes, yes very annoying. It's like a demonic dolphin. Bringing it into the ultra sonic band would help.
- bigiain 2mo agoI had a Timex Data Watch over 30 years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Datalink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Datalink It'd transfer phone numbers and calendar entries to the watch by blinking the screen of your computer. Kinda a 1 pixel version of this. (I wonder where that ended up? From memory I threw it in a drawer when I finished the Windows 95 project I'd been working on, and switched to Mac. There was no Mac software to talk to it.)
- atoav 2mo agoI have seen digital audio gear that solved firmware transfer like that. You basically go to a website on your phone and it flickers the screen and you hold it in front of a photosensitive bit of the device that needs to be updated for 20 seconds and done. If your firmware is small enough to fit that model, it isn't a bad variant. Beats downloading a file, transferring it to a USB drive, sticking that in,...
- krautsauer 2mo agoThat'd be a few 100 bytes at best… what firmware fits into that?
- account42 2mo ago100 bytes in 20 seconds would only be 40 bps. Surely you can do better than that even using only one bit symbols (off/on).
- krautsauer 2mo agoWith a flashing phone screen? 120Hz tops, right?
- _joel 2mo agoIf only they had a clean digital way of getting data into the system.
- inigyou 2mo agoListen, you do not want your firmware to be updated by playing a FLAC file.
- ninjalanternshk 2mo ago[dead]
- jodrellblank 2mo agoPsion Series 5 and other PDAs had infra red (IrDA) ports for 'beam'ing contacts, transferring files, printing, etc. 1998 - https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.psion.misc/c/oFtTHyx6IRw https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.psion.misc/c/oFtTHyx6IR... 1994 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IrDA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IrDA
- ErroneousBosh 2mo agoYou can do PSK31 across a room with just audio, but it is a kind of annoying noise after a while. It's interesting that you learn to recognise patterns in the burbling tones after a while. "CQ CQ CQ" is very distinctive and after a while you can hear your own callsign in it. I guess it's not that different to very fast Morse.
- myself248 2mo agoOr SSTV! I recall a demo years ago where someone had SSTV running between a speaker at the focus of a small dish, across to the room to another small dish with a microphone...
- ErroneousBosh 2mo agoThere's a track on an Aphex Twin CD (yeah well it would be, eh?) called Bonus High Frequency Sounds that's an SSTV pic of him in his studio.
- krautsauer 2mo agoHave a look at minimodem. In short: yes, but it's slow and annoying.
- utopiah 2mo agoIndeed encryption should not be hard yet which situation do you have in mind where simply pulling away the emitting phone would not be enough? AFAIK the normal scenario is two persons in the same physical space so I am not sure what encryption would add.
- elric 2mo agoOther cameras could presumably be snooping on the data transfer.
- inigyou 2mo agoThey could, you're right. Usability is important though. If you have to type in a bunch of hex digits before sending, it won't be used.
- utopiah 2mo agoRealistically speaking with another phone in front and imagining how close one has to be for it to work reliably (as it is not a 64x64 pixels image) I think it would be really hard not to notice. The same way you whisper to say something secret in a public space I would expect people who transfer something private in public would have the presence of mind not let other snoop on and react accordingly.
- bschwindHN 2mo agoEncryption is a toilet paper roll.
- pjc50 2mo ago> between devices that doesn't rely on online services -- no clue why we didn't solve that ages ago Airdrop is a thing, but remember that Android phones are controlled by the online services company that wants you to use online services.
- throwaway260626 2mo agoBluetooth is a thing too and I think it is even faster than this qr code video transfer method. Of course still slower than Airdrop.
- inigyou 2mo agoActually it's the opposite - Airdrop is controlled by the vendor lock-in company that wants you to only buy its hardware.
- stronglikedan 2mo ago> by the online services company that wants you to use online services Do you mean the one that went to all the trouble to reverse engineer Airdrop so that people could access Apple's vendor-locked walled garden without the use of online services?
- orev 2mo agoLocalSend has been working great for me across different types of devices.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]