Posted by Radio2600 You can always opt for a more direct approach.

Hell Yeah! Need more people to take action like this. The world would be a much better place.

Posted by Radio2600 You can always opt for a more direct approach.

Lol, thanks, but no thanks !!

When looking for security cameras, look for IR lights circling the lens. At night, they will glow a really dim "red" color. Any cameras with a flashing indicator light are probably fake. Some fake cameras may even have a motion detector on them, making a light come on when it detects motion.

If the owner hires a contracted security company, they'll set alarms throughout the building. If you set one off, you usually have a few minutes to book it out of there. They get the alarm notification at their dispatch center and have to send security guards in a patrol car to check it out. If you get caught, they'll ask for your names (which you don't have to give them) and possibly contact police. The camera images/video will be of little value for a trespassing charge, especially if you don't live nearby where someone would be able to identify you. If you see security, just book it out of there and avoid the confrontation.

Posted by wttnparanormal When looking for security cameras, look for IR lights circling the lens. At night, they will glow a really dim "red" color. Any cameras with a flashing indicator light are probably fake. Some fake cameras may even have a motion detector on them, making a light come on when it detects motion. If the owner hires a contracted security company, they'll set alarms throughout the building. If you set one off, you usually have a few minutes to book it out of there. They get the alarm notification at their dispatch center and have to send security guards in a patrol car to check it out. If you get caught, they'll ask for your names (which you don't have to give them) and possibly contact police. The camera images/video will be of little value for a trespassing charge, especially if you don't live nearby where someone would be able to identify you. If you see security, just book it out of there and avoid the confrontation.

A smart cam might ID you on the spot.
They can use facial recognition.
Depends on the level of security.
FLIR cams can also now be integrated into smart cam networks and there's FLIR facial recognition capable software.

Posted by blackhawk A smart cam might ID you on the spot. They can use facial recognition. Depends on the level of security. FLIR cams can also now be integrated into smart cam networks and there's FLIR facial recognition capable software.

I was going through pictures on my phone today and noticed that it was asking a name for a face. I went to whatever settings thing it brought me to and it had every single picture that the guy was in there. Cool technology, but there are some possibly bad uses for it in our case.

Posted by ryanpics I was going through pictures on my phone today and noticed that it was asking a name for a face. I went to whatever settings thing it brought me to and it had every single picture that the guy was in there. Cool technology, but there are some possibly bad uses for it in our case.

A DL or state ID with your picture...

I wont bother quoting all the topics where clarification is necessary.

Trail cams. Typical Walmart variety camo deer hunter bubba special $59 cameras, are SD card only, however in the $300 and up range there are trail cams, cell phone enabled, web enabled that not only show up real time on Bubba's smart phone but leave a recording of ___ bytes on his home computer's hard drive. Some genius hillbillies out here where I live started stealing them. Soon as they powered them up the cell provider located them for the sheriff's office. Busted!


Most " un" security cams historically have been tied by wire to a local DVR, of unspecified quality and capacity. However nowadays for about the same cost you can have IS cams, linked to the Internet, accessible by mobile device through the building's WiFi. They are dirt cheap, they have 2 or 3 terabyte DVRs (Im using my former skills to protect our church from prowlers and vandals and radical jihadis etc) I know because I just installed some mid-priced ones in that church.

IR cams are just "night vision" cams the ring of LEDs is for illumination only and has nothing to do with motion detection capability. They come on after dark and stay on. You cant always see the glow either some are 99% invisible to humans and deer. The motion detect feature may or may not exhibit a visible or blinking light anywhere but the monitor. I have them in the church previously mentioned. The only way you can tell the motion detect is on is by a little icon displayed on the monitor screen.

So don't confuse IR illuminated with IR motion detect two separate features.

Facial recognition? Well it will undoubtedly come down to Walmart level cams, some day, software included but as of now the cost makes this viable only for high value high security locations only, and municipal street cams like some cities already have.

Posted by 2Xplorations Facial recognition? Well it will undoubtedly come down to Walmart level cams, some day, software included but as of now the cost makes this viable only for high value high security locations only, and municipal street cams like some cities already have.

If the perp does enough to warrant it facial recognition software can be used latter to ID them.

With smart cams it's not so much that they pull your name but that they acquire and track you as well as the ability to reacquire you automatically by face, vehicle, tags, gait, etc days even weeks latter.
LEOs don't need to search through dozens of cams views and hours of cam tapes; the smartcam software already has index the exact segments and cams were the perp appears in sequence as they are tracked.
An intelligent eye is upon you...

If you don’t see the IR motion cams in time, you can oftentimes hear their distinctive “click,” if you set them off (oops). By then it’s too late for stealth, but I have yet to set one off that was actually hooked up to anything live or I just got lucky.

For the record, I’ve tried the reflective emergency blanket idea to trick the infrared motion sensors, but that attempt to avoid setting off the IR sensor was not successful when I attempted it.

Posted by Dee Ashley If you don’t see the IR motion cams in time, you can oftentimes hear their distinctive “click,” if you set them off (oops). By then it’s too late for stealth, but I have yet to set one off that was actually hooked up to anything live or I just got lucky. For the record, I’ve tried the reflective emergency blanket idea to trick the infrared motion sensors, but that attempt to avoid setting off the IR sensor was not successful when I attempted it.

IR alarm sensors see the heat of objects in their field of view.
They detect changes in the temperature of these.
More elaborate ones further break this area into zones and looks for temp shifts across the zone areas.
Most in use now are probably zoned.

A reflective blanket would be at ambient air temp which may not be that of the objectives it's surveying.
It will keep your body heat from tripping it, but not the former.

One tactic is to cross as far from the sensor and as slow as possible.
Response is time/intensity based. Pass between the zones slow enough and you won't trigger it.
The closer you are, the greater the temperature difference and the faster you move between zones, the more likely you will trip it.

At 3 feet out on one I had it was nearly impossible to move slow enough, at 10 feet away if you moved very slow you could.

I've not tried it myself, but I've been told that infrared cameras will glow purple when viewed in the dark through the Snapchat app on most Android phones. Anybody know anything about this?

Posted by Aran I've not tried it myself, but I've been told that infrared cameras will glow purple when viewed in the dark through the Snapchat app on most Android phones. Anybody know anything about this?

Depends on if your cell phone camera has an IR filter built in or not, the Snapchat part is most likely a red herring.

Posted by Gothic Ghoul Depends on if your cell phone camera has an IR filter built in or not, the Snapchat part is most likely a red herring.

Exactly. IR is considered undesirable and many times there is an IR cut off filter to eliminate most of it. Otherwise it could degrade the image quality.

However I know at least one of my Canon could faintly see some IR in the invisible spectrum ie a IR diode in a TV remote.
It will be viewable with the cam if so; no special app needed.
Try it and see what you get

It's worth trying, but I'd almost rather risk it then have to waste my phone battery looking through a pitch black camera the whole time. I feel like that would prove to be a major inconvenience as well as a safety issue.

Posted by ryanpics It's worth trying, but I'd almost rather risk it then have to waste my phone battery looking through a pitch black camera the whole time. I feel like that would prove to be a major inconvenience as well as a safety issue.

Generally speaking, you’re going to find any cameras, IR or otherwise, over doorframes and maybe in hallways as you round a corner. This at least gives you an idea of where to look a bit more closely- and where to use extra caution.

Posted by Aran I've not tried it myself, but I've been told that infrared cameras will glow purple when viewed in the dark through the Snapchat app on most Android phones. Anybody know anything about this?

They will do the same in a photo too. Here is an abandoned subway station with an IR camera glowing purple to the left.

Bridges Landing Station by EXR, on Flickr

My work has IR cameras and all I need to do is point my Samsung s8 at it and i can see it through the camera but I believe it has to be dark for them to kick on. I'll test the one at work to see what kind of telltale signs it has.

Sticker test the cameras to see if they are monitored either by people or software. Put a sticker or some tape over the lens. Leave. Come back a few hours later. If the sticker is still there, the cameras are dead.

I would go.
Most cameras are there to look at after an incident.
nobody will sit all day and look at cameras in an abandoned building

Posted by Lukee36 I would go. Most cameras are there to look at after an incident. nobody will sit all day and look at cameras in an abandoned building

Smart cams/networks are completely automated.
AI at work.
These have dropped in price and are becoming more common.