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)

Make a covert wearable recorder with Pi Zero

In the same way that we used the Pi Zero in Chapter 2, Audio Antics, to create a covert audio record with a small battery pack and some low-profile USB adapters, we can do exactly the same with a small USB camera. In the following image, you can see that I have replaced the audio adapter and microphone with my USB webcam, again protected in a little bag:

Make a covert wearable recorder with Pi Zero
Our wearable Pi Zero with camera connected

Note

The Pi Zero with the battery pack shown should have enough current to power a small webcam as well as the Pi board. However, if you ever need to have the maximum power available from the USB port, you can add the following entry to the /boot/config.txt file: max_usb_current=1.

Again, our little low-profile micro-USB adapter helps us to keep our bag of tricks nice and compact.