Hacker sends this through the mail to record a video of the process | Hacker News Reader

Hacker sends this through the mail to record a video of the process

hackaday.com

240 pointsangersock55 comments

This has come through before, I wondered then if, had this been done in the US, the last bit of video would be the bomb robot coming up and shooting the package with a shotgun :-)

I was Fry's the other day and they have "spy pens" (those pocket video cameras) and I thought it would be an interesting way to do this project. Basically put one camera on each corner of the box (four sided) and then edit the camera contents together once you got to the destination (eliminating the boring /not useful bits).

I saw an interesting hack at a dinner the other day which used a camera and a 6DOF attitude sensor, to post transform the camera input so that it was always "up" (basically if you turn the camera upside down the orientation of the picture doesn't change). It seemed like a pretty cool application of these cheap orientation sensors to cameras.

In January a similar thing was done in the UK, with the package being sent to Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy.

http://wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.bitnik.org/assange/

What's up with the amount of Ws in this address?

My guesses are: 1) maybe it's a mockery of the redundancy of using "www" in URLs, 2) a clever prank on anyone that attempts to communicate the site's address verbally and doesn't know that the sub-domain portion is optional, 3) a way of making the link catch the eye and create enough curiosity to result in a click.

Just guesses though, I really couldn't find anything concrete about it.

Cool video and idea on the mailing system. Looks to be in a country that is not the U.S., maybe European??? Anyway, a U.S. version would be pretty cool to see as well.

Looks like Denmark (the logo at the front of the Post Office is from Post Danmark).

I thought so too, thanks for the confirmation.

The authors contact page [1] mentions a Dutch mobile phone number, but the stamp [2] clearly shows Post Danmark was used in transport.

[1] http://rubenvandervleuten.com/contact.html [2] http://rubenvandervleuten.com/AtoB1.jpg

The address on [2] also shows Copenhagen (København).

People move around Europe a lot these days.

It is Denmark, very likely Copenhagen.

I am Danish and recognise things such as Danske Bank, in the beginning of the video, Post Danmark and so forth :)

Funnily enough, my first thought was that it must have been in the UK, but also because of the Danske Bank -- one of the largest banks here in Northern Ireland. Post Danmark gave it away though.

He drove on the right on the way to the post office, but I thought of the UK, too, before I noticed that :)

Definitely Denmark. Also Danish license plates on the cars, in addition to what has already been mentioned.

But US-style mailboxes in the progress indicator (bottom of video). Interesting how that iconography has spread, even though the reality outside the US is often a box on the outside of the house, or just a slot in the door.

Everything looks so clean and organized. If this was done in the US, especially via UPS, it would look a lot different.

Me too, I expected a lot more mess (from working at post offices)

This is something I need to do in my country, I have developed resentment towards Sepomex (Servicio Postal Mexicano / Mexican Postal Service), due to the way they treat my packages.

What I hate the most is that companies like DHL that are established in Mexico, will use their own service in the country the delivery is being paid, but when the package reaches Mexico, they give the package to Sepomex, which basically defeats the purpose of using a different company...

In the US some vendors will send using UPS to USPS. I don't know what they save, but I think that the system loses a day or two compared to just UPS or just USPS. This is annoying if it is something that you need soon.

Fedex and UPS save a lot by delivering to the USPS distribution hub instead of your door:

http://www.fedex.com/us/smart-post/index.html http://consumerist.com/2012/11/21/insider-explains-why-fedex...

http://www.upsmailinnovations.com/services/domestic_mail.htm...

In other news: HaD is looking for a new owner??!

http://hackaday.com/2013/07/01/hackaday-looking-for-a-good-h...

They found one http://hackaday.com/2013/07/25/hello-from-supplyframe/

I wonder how long time the package spent time in transit, and how much time it simply spent idle.

Wow. I'd love for someone to do this with luggage on a flight.

its a DL advert, but they did this on a ATL->JFK flight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocbxS5aWUSo

I've never seen any airline be that gentle with loading / unloading luggage. Every glimpse I've seen has made me glad I never pack anything fragile.

This seems fishy to me. On a 6-sided package, why is the pinhole side always facing the action? Why is the shot never blocked by another package?

He edited out the boring parts, no one wants to watch a wall for 2 hours. Also he probably had a notice on the package to keep one side facing the top, at one point a machine did flip it over.

Seems like it would be more difficult to fake all of the different locations and people, than simply mail a box with a camera in it.

When it's facing another package or something the view is not changing, so no motion is detected and no frames are recorded.

He put the label on the top, so people/machines would flip it that way up so it could be read.

You can't be serious.

It's interesting to me how you can just look to the way that people are dressed as an indicator of where the package is in transit.

How did some scanner not think this weird bundle of electronics was a bomb? Or at least cause some one to inspect it closely.

The bomb detectors (if it passed through any) were more likely trying to detect actual chemical signatures of explosives rather than just a bunch of wires that might be a detonator. So something like this would pass fine, as it should.

Because outside of the US people are not paranoid.

There are countries in the world where this would rightly trigger a bomb scare. It's nothing to do with paranoia - in some places mail bombs are a reality.

Which places would that be?

Here is one example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Cooper_letter_bomb_campai...

Sadly England seems to be.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-23727511

That isn't paranoia.

A rather large bomb was set off by the IRA in 1996 within walking distance of the sorting office in the article. There have been multiple bombs planted recently in NI itself.

NI?

Northern Ireland.

People send battery laden electronics through the mail all the time. It's about all Sparkfun ever ships. Doesn't seem to be a problem.

Actually,'bout that: The USPS has banned the mailing of batteries, not because they're worried someone will disguise a bomb as one, but because they have a habit exploding in atmospheric changes.

You can certainly mail batteries, just with some restrictions.

http://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c3_024.htm

The picture on hackaday was of the inside of the box. Ruben's site shows more pictures of how the box looked closed.

http://www.rubenvandervleuten.com/AtoB.html

Because it's from Denmark.

Actually how is the legal situation on this? If they go all bomb scare crazy over this is it my fault as the sender even so it is not even remotely reassembling a bomb layout? Is there a ban on mailing home made electronics? Or do I need to put a sticker on ATTENTION, THIS IS NOT, I REPEAT, NOT A BOMB!

Why would they even know what's in the package? It shouldn't be going through any kind of xray machine.

Maybe they scan heavy packages only. A camera + controller + memory could go through a 'normal' path

Because as long as the package isn't making weird noises no one cares what's in it.

Because it's not a bomb?

It would be interesting to do the same kind of thing with airline luggage, or at least international freight.

Very cool.

We need more cracked screen smartphone apps at Google play and itunes.

This cool postal logger generalizes to recycled smartphone hackaday DIY probes recording their adventure and uplink data of anything desired, intrepidly set adrift in the wild:

Telemetry

...is the highly automated communications process by which measurements are made and other data collected at remote or inaccessible points and transmitted to receiving equipment for monitoring. The word is derived from Greek roots: tele = remote, and metron = measure. Systems that need external instructions and data to operate require the counterpart of telemetry, telecommand.

Although the term commonly refers to wireless data transfer mechanisms (e.g., using radio, hypersonic, or infrared systems), it also encompasses data transferred over other media such as a telephone or computer network, optical link or other wired communications like phase line carriers. Many modern telemetry systems take advantage of the low cost and ubiquity of GSM networks by using SMS to receive and transmit telemetry data.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telemetry

Telemetry intelligence (TELINT)

...is a subdiscipline of FISINT which is concerned with missiles and other remotely-monitored devices sending back continuous streams of data about their location, speed, engine status and other metrics. This data can provide information on the performance of the missile and especially its throw-weight, i.e. the potential size of its warhead\s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telemetry_intelligence

Also, when your probe is far far away, HN's second page magically concurrent today, provides minimalist command line bash telecommands:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6223022

http://shadabahmed.com/blog/2013/08/16/bang-bang

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