I was pretty intrigued to see Boston Dynamics' rollout of the SpotMini robot last week, especially when it was noted that a potential use could be as an autonomous "security dog". Obvious Black Mirror comparisons aside, this got me thinking about the current state of security measures that we, as urban explorers, are likely to run into. Stuff that you wouldn't find strategies against in Access All Areas, for example. I personally haven't really encountered anything more complex than motion sensors and cameras, but I'm interested to hear from those of you who have run into more advanced tools, and how these can be defeated.

One particular example that I have heard some discussion about recently are motion-activated trail cams that can can send alerts and a live video feed directly to an operator's phone. As tools like this become more common, how do we counteract them and keep our hobby alive?

Smart cams can be impossible to spot.
In Chester PA they were camoed.
Some looked like burned out street lights.
The only thing that save me was I had permission for the one structure I was in and not on public property.
Eyes wide open, be crafty and lucky...
-or-
Get permission.

I second the need for extra-vigilance due to new camera technology.

Cameras used to be expensive, required an AC power source, and were often not watched in real time. All of that has changed. Many are relatively-inexpensive, can run for years off battery, and can send smart alerts to a phone when motion is detected that is consistent with human activity (ignoring leaves blowing and non-human animals).

As an example, a friend recently "yelled" at explorers that were climbing up the fire escape to the roof of his apartment building through his smart camera, even though he was 500 miles away from home at the time.

Yea I've certainly noticed an increased use of "smart" IP Camera based CCTV systems around here, especially in highrise towers. They're unmanned and send wireless alerts to a monitoring station when their analytics software detects activity. They're smart enough to tell the difference between human and non-human motion, and have definitely encouraged me to re-think attempts at more than several locations. They're also becoming cheaper all the time, and I fear will become the new norm.

My friend has a system like this set up in his house and we've tried a bunch of ways of tricking it. The best we've come up with so far is crawling along the ground very slowly with a blanket covering your body. Not the most practical solution if you need to cover any meaningful distance, and I'm sure the more advanced systems could use thermal imaging to overcome that anyway. Sad.

Posted by terapr0 Yea I've certainly noticed an increased use of "smart" IP Camera based CCTV systems around here, especially in highrise towers. They're unmanned and send wireless alerts to a monitoring station when their analytics software detects activity. They're smart enough to tell the difference between human and non-human motion, and have definitely encouraged me to re-think attempts at more than several locations. They're also becoming cheaper all the time, and I fear will become the new norm. My friend has a system like this set up in his house and we've tried a bunch of ways of tricking it. The best we've come up with so far is crawling along the ground very slowly with a blanket covering your body. Not the most practical solution if you need to cover any meaningful distance, and I'm sure the more advanced systems could use thermal imaging to overcome that anyway. Sad.

The heart of the smartcam is the computer/pragramming the cams are linked to.
Cams are always fixed position, but are easily completely concealable if that is their intent.
If so, you'll never know they're there until it's too late.
They can use high res cams with long telephoto lens to survey from thousands of feet away.
Cams often have overlapping fields of view. Disabling one cam does not disable the network.
Evading one cam is often not enough in a well designed smartcam network.

A skilled programmer can set parameters to trigger a alarm for slow moving objects breaching zones.
Advanced systems have and use facial recognition, vehicle color/model, plate number gleaning, even estimate the race of a person.
Zone breaches and/or parameter triggers will trigger anything from a real time alert to a log notation along with the recorded image throughout the network. Once it acquires you or your car, bike etc it will track you throughout its network of cams. Some systems can recognize you and reacquire if you leave and return, even days or weeks latter.
They can be programmed to 'look' for specific vehicles, faces, or actions.

Thermal cams could be used to detect motion, perhaps a human form verses animal although I'm not aware of any systems that do.
Facial recognition using FLIR is still in its infancy, a small blessing. However software is now available at least of a federal level for this very purpose.

Do wear a hat (bush hat or at least a baseball cap) that covers your eyes; pupil distance is a key parameter for facial recognition.
Remember your driver license pic that was digitally uploaded? In some (all?) states your image is searchable. The FBI, DOD, etc uses these databases.
Walking/running gait can ID you as well although not sure if this is in use.

Not a pretty picture.
The FBI does make house calls if you breach one of their smartcam networks and are/become a person of interest; I can verify this
Any federal/active military site or 911 hot spot be wary of the potential presence of a sophisticated smartcam network.
I warned UER members of this 10 years ago... who's laughing now?

Take the invisible cap from HP 👌

Posted by DonPictures Take the invisible cap from HP 👌

It's an invisibility cloak, you heathen.

In all seriousness, I've heard that foil blankets can be used to fool thermal-activated motion detectors and cameras. I've never encountered one in real life though, so I haven't had the opportunity to test that rumor.

Posted by Aran It's an invisibility cloak, you heathen. In all seriousness, I've heard that foil blankets can be used to fool thermal-activated motion detectors and cameras. I've never encountered one in real life though, so I haven't had the opportunity to test that rumor.

Yeah, but being dressed as a baked potato is going to make you a bit more obvious for every other countermeasure.

The best network of security features I've seen was on an abandoned hospital in Scotland. Getting into the grounds was laughably easy but the security company had attached limpet-like PIR motion alarms at roughly knee height to the outside of every building at about 10 metre intervals. After tripping two or three of them the audible alarm started going off warning us that the police were on the way yadda yadda yadda - with it being in a heavily residential area we didn't want to draw too much attention to ourselves so decided to head out, and as soon as we stepped foot outside the perimeter fence the alarms were turned off, so the CCTV cameras we assumed to be duds must have been monitored at least to some extent.

Trail cams have a low frame rate AFAIK. Feel free to correct me if that's not true.

Posted by mookster The best network of security features I've seen was on an abandoned hospital in Scotland. Getting into the grounds was laughably easy but the security company had attached limpet-like PIR motion alarms at roughly knee height to the outside of every building at about 10 metre intervals. After tripping two or three of them the audible alarm started going off warning us that the police were on the way yadda yadda yadda - with it being in a heavily residential area we didn't want to draw too much attention to ourselves so decided to head out, and as soon as we stepped foot outside the perimeter fence the alarms were turned off, so the CCTV cameras we assumed to be duds must have been monitored at least to some extent.

In Edinburgh by chance?? If so, they weren't there when I visited a few of the buildings ~3yrs ago. That place is insane...wish I got to see more of it!

Posted by terapr0 In Edinburgh by chance?? If so, they weren't there when I visited a few of the buildings ~3yrs ago. That place is insane...wish I got to see more of it!

Not Edinburgh, a little further north but fairly close 'as the crow flies'.

In Berlin they use a more direct approach.