Book Image

Raspberry Pi for Secret Agents

By : Stefan Sjogelid
Book Image

Raspberry Pi for Secret Agents

By: Stefan Sjogelid

Overview of this book

Ever wished you could play around with all the neat gadgets your favorite spies use (like James Bond or Michael Westen)? With the introduction of the remarkable Raspberry Pi and a few USB accessories, anybody can now join in on the action.Discover how to turn your Raspberry Pi into a multipurpose secret agent tool! Through a series of fun, easy-to-follow projects you'll learn how to set up audio/video surveillance, explore your Wi-Fi network, play pranks on your friends, and even learn how to free your Raspberry Pi from the constraints of the wall socket.Raspberry Pi for Secret Agents starts out with the initial setup of your Raspberry Pi, guides you through a number of pranks and secret agent techniques, and then shows you how to apply what you've learned out in the real world. Learn how to configure your operating system for maximum mischief and start exploring the audio, video, and Wi-Fi projects. Learn how to record, listen, or talk to people from a distance and how to distort your voice. You can even plug in your webcam and set up a motion detector with an alarm, or find out what the other computers on your Wi-Fi network are up to. Once you've mastered the techniques, combine them with a battery pack and GPS for the ultimate off-road spy kit.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)
Raspberry Pi for Secret Agents
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Setting up your camera


Go ahead, plug in your webcam and boot up the Pi; we'll take a closer look at what makes it tick.

Note

If you experimented with the dwc_otg.speed parameter to improve the audio quality during the previous chapter, you should change it back now by changing its value from 1 to 0, as chances are that your webcam will perform worse or will not perform at all, because of the reduced speed of the USB ports.

Meet the USB Video Class drivers and Video4Linux

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

  • The Linux USB Video Class (UVC) drivers provide the low-level functions for your 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 webcams, TV tuners, and other video-producing...