Cameraphone remotely activates cameraphone in DIY venture

We've seen some fairly intuitive home security creations in our day, but this little wonder ranks pretty high up there. Utilizing a couple of cameraphones, a microcontroller, solenoid relays, a photoresistor, wires galore, a soldering iron and a robust picture messaging plan, this cameraphone activated cameraphone can be used to snap pictures of a pre-defined location whenever you get curious. We could even see building an entire fleet if you're really paranoid, but by the time you add all those additional lines, you may be better off just pulling the trigger on a bonafide CCTV system. Nevertheless, feel free to follow the read link and hack until your heart's content, and check out a video of this setup in action after the jump.

Remote Activated Phone Camera - video powered by Metacafe/center>

[jman315 @ Dec 5th 2007 3:23AM]

its great how something that really has no purpose can still be pretty darn cool

[trevor @ Dec 5th 2007 3:34AM]

You know, if an Aqua Teen Hunger Force marketing campaign can be mistaken for a terrorist bomb plot, I'd hate to see how the authorities react to seeing these things strapped to the side of a building.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/31/aqua-teen-hunger-force-viral-ads-cause-boston-bomb-scare/

[trancer @ Dec 5th 2007 3:55AM]

Yeah really. pretty nifty though!

[Dean @ Dec 5th 2007 3:44AM]

This can be done on any symbian nokia device, without extra hardware, with few lines of python code :)

[trancer @ Dec 5th 2007 3:55AM]

link or stfu

[DJ Fadereu @ Dec 5th 2007 4:45AM]

That's absolutely correct. And the PyS60 code is fairly trivial too.

But I think the real cool hack here is the mechanical trigger and relay, not the software. He could have found a better use for this device....lol

[Fraggle.Rock @ Dec 5th 2007 4:02AM]

If it were me, or your average EOD technician, I'd swear that was an IED trigger.

[Snurv @ Dec 5th 2007 4:18AM]

It's absolutely lovely, isn't it? Apple could take a few design tips from this.

[Khakionion @ Dec 5th 2007 4:47AM]

Cameraphone activated cameraphone? Mehhhhhhhh, more like SMS. I could activate this with some POS no-frills phone, too. Or my Skype account.

I want to see a cameraphone that's activated by another cameraphone. Like, take a picture of some pre-defined class of object in order to trigger a picture being taken on the remote cameraphone.

Practical? Not at all. But that's what a "cameraphone activated cameraphone" would be.

[Twitchy @ Dec 5th 2007 6:02AM]

I suggested somthing like this to Siemens a couple of years ago. Their cordless landline handsets often have a 'babysitter' modus whereby you can call home and listen in over the inbuilt mic. I suggested also the introduction of a camera on the landline phone which would send images via the internets/blogosphere to a cellphone.

Now that I come to think of it, I should've patented it and waited until someone else produced it so I could sue.

[PEZ @ Dec 5th 2007 7:29AM]

they call this Mecca Punk.

[John @ Dec 5th 2007 7:51AM]

now... if only we could figure out a way to make car tires like those old bike tires that never pop, oh and do it without killing the shocks...

[Bombaclaat @ Dec 5th 2007 12:08PM]

one word, alibi.

[Brian @ Dec 5th 2007 8:24PM]

Wow... so that's how I make a remotely detonated IED! Thanks Engadget!

(This is where I'd make a joke about going to some public building, but John Ashcroft is still out there... watching... waiting...)