December 10, 2010

Sneakey allows you to duplicate a key from a mere photograph



The Sneakey sounds like some spy technology plucked out of a James Bond movie, but it is close to becoming real.
The Sneakey uses teleduplication, which is a way of extracting a normal key’s complete and precise “tooth pattern” at a distance using optical decoding and then cutting precise duplicates. In other words, a camera can take a picture of key from a distance, and from the high resolution photo, the photographer will have the information necessary to make a perfect copy of the photographed key.

This technology is under development by computer scientists at the University of California at San Diego. They were able to demonstrate this teleduplicaiton tech by photographing a whole ring of keys that were on a table from 195 feet away using a telephoto lens.

Believe it or not, they were able to duplicate all the keys on the ring. They have even claimed to get duplicates from pictures of keys taken with an ordinary cell phonecamera.
So, what does this mean? It means you should probably be wary of displaying your keys in public. I’ve heard of scams where ordinary cashiers take pictures of their customer’s credit cards using cell phone cameras, then use the numbers to purchase goods illegally. This teleduplication technology takes this identity theft scam to a Sneakey level as scammers can get the information to break into someone’s home.

22 comments:

  1. Oh wow. I guess they'd still have to figure out a way to know what the key belonged to or already know the right key to photograph. It's still creepy.

    Also, thanks for recommending statcounter, it's beastly. Way better than google's.

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  2. it's things like this that make you wonder why they would even spend time and money developing this technology.

    Seriously, what good could come of this technology? Even the military uses I can think of are pathetically underhanded. If you're gunna break into someone's home, be a man and break a fucking window you pussy.

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  3. @SpringyB

    No problem! Discovered that website not so long ago and since it's free, why not sharing it?!

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  4. That's both incredibly impressive technology along with being very worrysome.

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  5. Maybe a security counter measure can be a key that requires both sides to be unique.

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  6. haha oh wow why hasn't someone thought of this earlier?!?

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  7. Impressive project.
    I think one of the wikileaks cables asked UN workers to make duplicates of diplomat's keys. This technology is probably already in the canteen security cameras of the UN building.

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  8. Holy shit, that can duplicate keys from that far away? As if I wasn't paranoid enough.

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  9. I don't care what the real-world implications are, I want this in my next Tom Clancey video game.

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  10. hide yo keys... they copying errything out here

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  11. I need this in the worst way. my house is 60 years old and I can't find anyone who is able to copy the original key. short, of re-keying the entire house, this would be convenient.

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  12. You mean they can come in undetected and peruse my DVD collection, and eat all the French Onion dip in my fridge?! The tech is impressive, however, and I guess people with stuff to hide should be concerned.

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  13. this really works? who would spend ther time on this though...crazy..

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  14. Kind of unsettling, if you ask me.

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  15. This is why I set traps near my most secret stuff.

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  16. jeez, the reasons to be paranoid of everybody keep piling up.

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