I'm glad the author linked to Matt's videos. As soon as I saw the Wired headline I knew where they got the scoop from. His youtube channel [0] is focused on IOT hacking. Most of his techniques will probably be considered basic by HN people, but his videos have a good vibe and I look forward to them showing up in my feed. Hope others enjoy too!
Is this new or interesting? I mean my 10 year old car has a feature that shows realtime traffic cams wherever I am. I imagine these things are widely available and you could run a plate reader on those feeds.
It typically takes a special camera and software. You need focus, a large-enough sensor in low-light conditions, adjusting or bypassing compression, etc. Not always impossible of course, just highly unreliable otherwise.