Book Image

Raspberry Pi for Secret Agents - Third Edition

Book Image

Raspberry Pi for Secret Agents - Third Edition

Overview of this book

This book is for all mischievous Raspberry Pi owners who’d like to see their computer transform into a neat spy gadget to be used in a series of practical pranks and projects. No previous skills are required to follow along, and if you’re completely new to Linux, you’ll pick up much of the basics for free. We’ll help you set up your Raspberry Pi Zero, Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3 and guide you through a number of pranks and secret agent techniques that are so inconspicuous yet high on mischief. You’ll learn how to configure your operating system for maximum mischief and start exploring audio, video, or Wi-Fi techniques. We’ll show you how to record, listen, or talk to people from a distance and how to set up your own phone network. Then, you’ll plug in your webcam and set up a motion detector with an alarm and find out what the other computers on your Wi-Fi network are up to. Once you’ve mastered the techniques, we’ll combine them with a battery pack and GPS for the ultimate off-road spy kit.
Table of Contents (7 chapters)

Meet the USB Video Class drivers and Video4Linux


Just as the ALSA system provides kernel drivers and a programming framework for your audio gadgets, there are two important components involved in getting your cameras to work under Linux:

  • The Linux USB Video Class (UVC) drivers provide the low-level functions for your USB webcam, which are in accordance with a specification followed by most webcams produced today.

  • Video4Linux (V4L) is a video capture framework used by applications that record video from cameras, TV tuners, and other video producing devices. There's an updated version of V4L called V4L2, which we'll want to use whenever possible.