This document reviews wireless spy device (WSD) technologies and methods for detecting WSDs. It discusses:
1) Types of WSDs including active devices that transmit signals and passive devices that only record data.
2) Detection methods for active WSDs including radio frequency (RF) detectors and spectrum analysis to identify transmitted signals.
3) Use of nonlinear junction detectors to detect passive WSDs by analyzing harmonic signals generated from semiconductor junctions when illuminated with RF signals.
International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA) is a team of researchers not publication services or private publications running the journals for monetary benefits, we are association of scientists and academia who focus only on supporting authors who want to publish their work. The articles published in our journal can be accessed online, all the articles will be archived for real time access.
Our journal system primarily aims to bring out the research talent and the works done by sciaentists, academia, engineers, practitioners, scholars, post graduate students of engineering and science. This journal aims to cover the scientific research in a broader sense and not publishing a niche area of research facilitating researchers from various verticals to publish their papers. It is also aimed to provide a platform for the researchers to publish in a shorter of time, enabling them to continue further All articles published are freely available to scientific researchers in the Government agencies,educators and the general public. We are taking serious efforts to promote our journal across the globe in various ways, we are sure that our journal will act as a scientific platform for all researchers to publish their works online.
K Coverage Probability of 5G Wireless Cognitive Radio Network under Shadow Fa...ijeei-iaes
Land mobile communication is burdened with typical propagation constraints due to the channel characteristics in radio systems.Also,the propagation characteristics vary form place to place and also as the mobile unit moves,from time to time.Hence,the tramsmission path between transmitter and receiver varies from simple direct LOS to the one which is severely obstructed by buildings,foliage and terrain.Multipath propagation and shadow fading effects affect the signal strength of an arbitrary Transmitter-Receiver due to the rapid fluctuations in the phase and amplitude of signal which also determines the average power over an area of tens or hundreds of meters.Shadowing introduces additional fluctuations,so the received local mean power varies around the area –mean.The present section deals with the performance analysis of fifth generation wireless cognitive radio network on the basis of signal and interference level based k coverage probability under the shadow fading effects.
Millimeter wave channel modeling via generative neural networkMirza Baig
The design and assessment of any far off communication system pivots basically on the accessibility of factual channel fashions that adequate portray the conveyance of constituent parameters within the eventualities of intrigued. Without a doubt, statistical fashions have been the institution of for all intents and functions every cell and WLAN industrial evaluation method for decades. The extension of these models to the millimeter wave (mm Wave) bands, in any case, is difficult: frameworks work over large bandwidths and with pretty mandate radio wire clusters, and as a consequence require fashions that seize the delay, headings, and route preferences up, with adequate determination to as it should be evaluate beamforming, equalization, and different key calculations . The parameters in these models can show absolutely complex relationships that are very troublesome to set up from first principles.
THE UWB SOLUTION FOR MULTIMEDIA TRAFFIC IN WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKSijwmn
Several researches are focused on the QoS (Quality of Service) and Energy consumption in wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks. Those research projects invest in theory and practice in order to extend the spectrum of use of norms, standards and technologies which are emerged in wireless communications.
The performance of these technologies is strongly related to domains of use and limitations of their characteristics. In this paper, we give a comparison of ZigBee technology, most widely used in sensor networks, and UWB (Ultra Wide Band) which presents itself as competitor that present in these work better results for audiovisual applications with medium-range and high throughput.
International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA) is a team of researchers not publication services or private publications running the journals for monetary benefits, we are association of scientists and academia who focus only on supporting authors who want to publish their work. The articles published in our journal can be accessed online, all the articles will be archived for real time access.
Our journal system primarily aims to bring out the research talent and the works done by sciaentists, academia, engineers, practitioners, scholars, post graduate students of engineering and science. This journal aims to cover the scientific research in a broader sense and not publishing a niche area of research facilitating researchers from various verticals to publish their papers. It is also aimed to provide a platform for the researchers to publish in a shorter of time, enabling them to continue further All articles published are freely available to scientific researchers in the Government agencies,educators and the general public. We are taking serious efforts to promote our journal across the globe in various ways, we are sure that our journal will act as a scientific platform for all researchers to publish their works online.
K Coverage Probability of 5G Wireless Cognitive Radio Network under Shadow Fa...ijeei-iaes
Land mobile communication is burdened with typical propagation constraints due to the channel characteristics in radio systems.Also,the propagation characteristics vary form place to place and also as the mobile unit moves,from time to time.Hence,the tramsmission path between transmitter and receiver varies from simple direct LOS to the one which is severely obstructed by buildings,foliage and terrain.Multipath propagation and shadow fading effects affect the signal strength of an arbitrary Transmitter-Receiver due to the rapid fluctuations in the phase and amplitude of signal which also determines the average power over an area of tens or hundreds of meters.Shadowing introduces additional fluctuations,so the received local mean power varies around the area –mean.The present section deals with the performance analysis of fifth generation wireless cognitive radio network on the basis of signal and interference level based k coverage probability under the shadow fading effects.
Millimeter wave channel modeling via generative neural networkMirza Baig
The design and assessment of any far off communication system pivots basically on the accessibility of factual channel fashions that adequate portray the conveyance of constituent parameters within the eventualities of intrigued. Without a doubt, statistical fashions have been the institution of for all intents and functions every cell and WLAN industrial evaluation method for decades. The extension of these models to the millimeter wave (mm Wave) bands, in any case, is difficult: frameworks work over large bandwidths and with pretty mandate radio wire clusters, and as a consequence require fashions that seize the delay, headings, and route preferences up, with adequate determination to as it should be evaluate beamforming, equalization, and different key calculations . The parameters in these models can show absolutely complex relationships that are very troublesome to set up from first principles.
THE UWB SOLUTION FOR MULTIMEDIA TRAFFIC IN WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKSijwmn
Several researches are focused on the QoS (Quality of Service) and Energy consumption in wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks. Those research projects invest in theory and practice in order to extend the spectrum of use of norms, standards and technologies which are emerged in wireless communications.
The performance of these technologies is strongly related to domains of use and limitations of their characteristics. In this paper, we give a comparison of ZigBee technology, most widely used in sensor networks, and UWB (Ultra Wide Band) which presents itself as competitor that present in these work better results for audiovisual applications with medium-range and high throughput.
Impact of Next Generation Cognitive Radio Network on the Wireless Green Eco s...ijeei-iaes
Land mobile communication is burdened with typical propagation constraints due to the channel characteristics in radio systems.Also,the propagation characteristics vary form place to place and also as the mobile unit moves,from time to time.Hence,the tramsmission path between transmitter and receiver varies from simple direct LOS to the one which is severely obstructed by buildings, foliage and terrain. Multipath propagation and shadow fading effects affect the signal strength of an arbitrary Transmitter-Receiver due to the rapid fluctuations in the phase and amplitude of signal which also determines the average power over an area of tens or hundreds of meters. Shadowing introduces additional fluctuations, so the received local mean power varies around the area –mean. The present paper deals with the performance analysis of impact of next generation wireless cognitive radio network on wireless green eco system through signal and interference level based k coverage probability under the shadow fading effects.
SCALABILITY CONCERNS OF CHIRP SPREAD SPECTRUM FOR LPWAN APPLICATIONSijasuc
Divergent modulation schemes have been proposed for the Internet of Things (IoT). Low Power Wide Area
Networks (LPWAN) technologies are gaining unprecedented acceptance in IoT application of sensor
networks. Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS) is a prominent modulation technique proposed for LPWAN. Chirps
can traverse long distance and are resilient to noise and Doppler effects. Noise resilience along with
transmission range and low power requirement makes CSS a preferred modulation scheme for sensor
networks. LoRaWANTM, with its physical (PHY) layer using CSS, has emerged as the widely accepted
LPWAN solution. By using CSS modulation with orthogonal spreading factors (SF), LoRa offers wide
coverage to LPWAN applications while supporting a high volume of devices. However, scalability
performance of CSS has not been inadequately modeled. As with the suitability of the modulation scheme,
there are concerns on how chirps interact with the surrounding as the number of deployments bursts out
into higher volumes. We evaluate CSS at ISM band 868 MHz for spreading factor 7 to 12 at bandwidth 125
kHz for performance and scalability. Simultaneous transmissions were simulated with repeated iterations
and conclusions are arrived on collisions rate, packet error rate, and bit error. Suitability of using CSS for
sensor networks for future deployments is commended.
Machine learning based lightweight interference mitigation scheme for wireles...TELKOMNIKA JOURNAL
The interference issue is most vibrant on low-powered networks like wireless sensor network (WSN). In some cases, the heavy interference on WSN from different technologies and devices result in life threatening situations. In this paper, a machine learning (ML) based lightweight interference mitigation scheme for WSN is proposed. The scheme detects and identifies heterogeneous interference like Wifi, bluetooth and microwave oven using a lightweight feature extraction method and ML lightweight decision tree. It also provides WSN an adaptive interference mitigation solution by helping to choose packet scheduling, Acknowledgement (ACK)-retransmission or channel switching as the best countermeasure. The scheme is simulated with test data to evaluate the accuracy performance and the memory consumption. Evaluation of the proposed scheme’s memory profile shows a 14% memory saving compared to a fast fourier transform (FFT) based periodicity estimation technique and 3% less memory compared to logistic regression-based ML model, hence proving the scheme is lightweight. The validation test shows the scheme has a high accuracy at 95.24%. It shows a precision of 100% in detecting WiFi and microwave oven interference while a 90% precision in detecting bluetooth interference.
A Hybrid Approach for Performance Enhancement of VANET using CSMA-MACA: a Reviewiosrjce
IOSR Journal of Computer Engineering (IOSR-JCE) is a double blind peer reviewed International Journal that provides rapid publication (within a month) of articles in all areas of computer engineering and its applications. The journal welcomes publications of high quality papers on theoretical developments and practical applications in computer technology. Original research papers, state-of-the-art reviews, and high quality technical notes are invited for publications.
Cognitive Radio (CR) is an adaptive, intelligent radio and network technology that can automatically detect available channels in a wireless spectrum and change transmission parameters enabling more communications to run concurrently and also improve radio operating behavior.
IoT Needs Good Neighbours - Cognitive Radio Turns Enemies into FriendsAMIHO Technology
With the internet of things the use of connected devices is predicted to be in many tens of billions. In this presentation, Steve Clarke discusses the use of various wireless technologies and techniques such as cognitive radio to allow these devices to co-exist in harmony with their (many) neighbours.
Steve Clarke, Technical Director of AMIHO, presented this paper at the prestigious Embedded World conference,Feb 2016.
CR technology is based on the fact that the licensed systems (also named primary systems PS) are not always using their spectrum bands; CR brings new radio types—cognitive radios—that should firstly, identify the existing spectrum holes, and secondly, utilize them according to an access
An overview of cognitive radio, comparison of cognitive radio vs. conventional radio, real-world applications for cognitive radio networks, how cognitive radios improve spectrum efficiency and address the wireless spectrum shortage.
The prototype is an idea which uses the property of an electromagnet by virtue of which it changes the polarity of its poles whenever the direction of current is changed. This variation in polarity is utilized to attract or repel the permanent magnet attached to the piston. The usage of relay and timer will limit the output of the engine. By using an ECU in the engine instead, power can be obtained on each stroke which will result in an increased output.
Impact of Next Generation Cognitive Radio Network on the Wireless Green Eco s...ijeei-iaes
Land mobile communication is burdened with typical propagation constraints due to the channel characteristics in radio systems.Also,the propagation characteristics vary form place to place and also as the mobile unit moves,from time to time.Hence,the tramsmission path between transmitter and receiver varies from simple direct LOS to the one which is severely obstructed by buildings, foliage and terrain. Multipath propagation and shadow fading effects affect the signal strength of an arbitrary Transmitter-Receiver due to the rapid fluctuations in the phase and amplitude of signal which also determines the average power over an area of tens or hundreds of meters. Shadowing introduces additional fluctuations, so the received local mean power varies around the area –mean. The present paper deals with the performance analysis of impact of next generation wireless cognitive radio network on wireless green eco system through signal and interference level based k coverage probability under the shadow fading effects.
SCALABILITY CONCERNS OF CHIRP SPREAD SPECTRUM FOR LPWAN APPLICATIONSijasuc
Divergent modulation schemes have been proposed for the Internet of Things (IoT). Low Power Wide Area
Networks (LPWAN) technologies are gaining unprecedented acceptance in IoT application of sensor
networks. Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS) is a prominent modulation technique proposed for LPWAN. Chirps
can traverse long distance and are resilient to noise and Doppler effects. Noise resilience along with
transmission range and low power requirement makes CSS a preferred modulation scheme for sensor
networks. LoRaWANTM, with its physical (PHY) layer using CSS, has emerged as the widely accepted
LPWAN solution. By using CSS modulation with orthogonal spreading factors (SF), LoRa offers wide
coverage to LPWAN applications while supporting a high volume of devices. However, scalability
performance of CSS has not been inadequately modeled. As with the suitability of the modulation scheme,
there are concerns on how chirps interact with the surrounding as the number of deployments bursts out
into higher volumes. We evaluate CSS at ISM band 868 MHz for spreading factor 7 to 12 at bandwidth 125
kHz for performance and scalability. Simultaneous transmissions were simulated with repeated iterations
and conclusions are arrived on collisions rate, packet error rate, and bit error. Suitability of using CSS for
sensor networks for future deployments is commended.
Machine learning based lightweight interference mitigation scheme for wireles...TELKOMNIKA JOURNAL
The interference issue is most vibrant on low-powered networks like wireless sensor network (WSN). In some cases, the heavy interference on WSN from different technologies and devices result in life threatening situations. In this paper, a machine learning (ML) based lightweight interference mitigation scheme for WSN is proposed. The scheme detects and identifies heterogeneous interference like Wifi, bluetooth and microwave oven using a lightweight feature extraction method and ML lightweight decision tree. It also provides WSN an adaptive interference mitigation solution by helping to choose packet scheduling, Acknowledgement (ACK)-retransmission or channel switching as the best countermeasure. The scheme is simulated with test data to evaluate the accuracy performance and the memory consumption. Evaluation of the proposed scheme’s memory profile shows a 14% memory saving compared to a fast fourier transform (FFT) based periodicity estimation technique and 3% less memory compared to logistic regression-based ML model, hence proving the scheme is lightweight. The validation test shows the scheme has a high accuracy at 95.24%. It shows a precision of 100% in detecting WiFi and microwave oven interference while a 90% precision in detecting bluetooth interference.
A Hybrid Approach for Performance Enhancement of VANET using CSMA-MACA: a Reviewiosrjce
IOSR Journal of Computer Engineering (IOSR-JCE) is a double blind peer reviewed International Journal that provides rapid publication (within a month) of articles in all areas of computer engineering and its applications. The journal welcomes publications of high quality papers on theoretical developments and practical applications in computer technology. Original research papers, state-of-the-art reviews, and high quality technical notes are invited for publications.
Cognitive Radio (CR) is an adaptive, intelligent radio and network technology that can automatically detect available channels in a wireless spectrum and change transmission parameters enabling more communications to run concurrently and also improve radio operating behavior.
IoT Needs Good Neighbours - Cognitive Radio Turns Enemies into FriendsAMIHO Technology
With the internet of things the use of connected devices is predicted to be in many tens of billions. In this presentation, Steve Clarke discusses the use of various wireless technologies and techniques such as cognitive radio to allow these devices to co-exist in harmony with their (many) neighbours.
Steve Clarke, Technical Director of AMIHO, presented this paper at the prestigious Embedded World conference,Feb 2016.
CR technology is based on the fact that the licensed systems (also named primary systems PS) are not always using their spectrum bands; CR brings new radio types—cognitive radios—that should firstly, identify the existing spectrum holes, and secondly, utilize them according to an access
An overview of cognitive radio, comparison of cognitive radio vs. conventional radio, real-world applications for cognitive radio networks, how cognitive radios improve spectrum efficiency and address the wireless spectrum shortage.
The prototype is an idea which uses the property of an electromagnet by virtue of which it changes the polarity of its poles whenever the direction of current is changed. This variation in polarity is utilized to attract or repel the permanent magnet attached to the piston. The usage of relay and timer will limit the output of the engine. By using an ECU in the engine instead, power can be obtained on each stroke which will result in an increased output.
SURVEY OF TRUST MODELS IN DIFFERENT NETWORK DOMAINSijasuc
This paper introduces the security and trust concepts in wireless sensor networks and explains the
difference between them, stating that even though both terms are used interchangeably when defining a
secure system, they are not the same. The difference between reputation and trust is also explained,
highlighting that reputation partially affects trust. A survey of trust and reputation systems in various
domains is conducted, with more details given to models in ad-hoc and sensor networks as they are closely
related to each other and to our research interests. The methodologies used to model trust and their
references are presented. The factors affecting trust updating are summarised and some examples of the
systems in which these factors have been implemented are given. The survey states that, even though
researchers have started to explore the issue of trust in wireless sensor networks, they are still examining
the trust associated with routing messages between nodes (binary events). However, wireless sensor
networks are mainly deployed to monitor events and report data, both continuous and discrete. This leads
to the development of new trust models addressing the continuous data issue and also to combine the data
trust and the communication trust to infer the total trust.
Integrated Security and Attack Detection Scheme for Wireless Sensor NetworksEditor IJMTER
The wireless sensor node is a tiny device that is used to capture environment information.
Sensor devices are used to capture temperature and pressure details from the environment. The
sensor devices are used in hospitals, home and production plants. The main components of a sensor
node are microcontroller, transceiver, external memory and power source. A wireless sensor network
(WSN) is a wireless network consisting of spatially distributed autonomous devices. Sensors are
used to cooperatively monitor physical or environmental conditions. Sensor network is equipped
with a radio transceiver or other wireless communications device. The sensor networks are deployed
with consideration of sensing and transmission coverage factors.
Sensor network security protocols provide confidentiality for the messages. Object location and data
sink information are the sensitive elements in the sensor network. Two techniques are used to
provide location privacy to monitored objects. They are Source-location privacy and Sink-location
privacy. Periodic collection and Source simulation models are used in Source-location privacy
technique. Sink simulation and backbone flooding models are used in Sink-location privacy
technique. Communication cost and latency factors are consider in the privacy protection model.
Source and destination location details are protected in the privacy model.
The proposed system integrates the location privacy and data security process for the wireless sensor
network. Region based query model is used to improve location privacy. Confidentiality and
integrity techniques are used for the security process. Rivest Cipher (RC4) algorithm and Secure
Hashing Algorithms (SHA) are used for the data security.
The wormhole attack in Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) decreases the network performance by dropping the No. of Packets. Many techniques have been proposed to so far reduce the impact of the wormhole attack by detecting and preventing it. But, related work indicates that no technique is perfect for every kind of circumstances of WSNs. Among the existing techniques, Watchdog technique has better performance in preventing the wormhole attack. It utilizes the local knowledge of the next hop node and eavesdrops it. If it gets that spending time of the Packet is more than the given threshold, then it characterizes that node as wormhole attacker. However, this method has several shortcomings that it does not track the link transmission errors, which may be because of congestion in WSNs and also it not offers high mobility for maximum No. of nodes, which eventually decreases the WSNs performance. In order to handle this issue, a new multipoint relay based Watchdog monitoring and prevention technique is proposed in this paper. The proposed technique utilizes the dynamic threshold value to detect the wormhole attacker node, and then clustering and the Watchdog based optimistic path is selected for communicating the Packets. Thus, it reduces the overall Packet dropping, which improves the performance of the WSNs.
There are many advantages to being able to track in real-time the movement of things or humans.
This is especially important in tracking goods in the supply chain, in security and also in health and safety.
The Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system works well in outdoor environments but it cannot track items
indoors. There is also the problem of power hungry sensor chips inherent in some GPS trackers. Mobile
Cellular triangulation also works well for many outdoor solutions but problems with cost, accuracy and
reliability make it difficult to deploy for indoor tracking scenarions. The levels of accuracy can vary by up to
50 meters which hinder its ability for adoption in many use case scenarios. There are also problems with
poor cellular coverage in rural areas. Solutions built on WiFi–the IEEE 802.11 standard overcome many of
these issues. WiFi location tracking works via sampling of the received signal strength (RSS) which along
with triangulation and prior mapping allows systems to locate items or humans with fine-granularity. This
WiFi fingerprinting is a viable cost-effective approach to determining movement within indoor enviroments.
This paper presents an overview of popular techniques and off-the-shelf solutions which can be used to
determine movement of people and objects indoors. We outline the Locator frameworks which is built on
both active and passive indoor localisation techniques for tracking movement within indoor environments.
International Journal of Engineering and Science Invention (IJESI)inventionjournals
International Journal of Engineering and Science Invention (IJESI) is an international journal intended for professionals and researchers in all fields of computer science and electronics. IJESI publishes research articles and reviews within the whole field Engineering Science and Technology, new teaching methods, assessment, validation and the impact of new technologies and it will continue to provide information on the latest trends and developments in this ever-expanding subject. The publications of papers are selected through double peer reviewed to ensure originality, relevance, and readability. The articles published in our journal can be accessed online
AN IMPROVED WATCHDOG TECHNIQUE BASED ON POWER-AWARE HIERARCHICAL DESIGN FOR I...IJNSA Journal
Preserving security and confidentiality in wireless sensor networks (WSN) are crucial. Wireless sensor networks in comparison with wired networks are more substantially vulnerable to attacks and intrusions. In WSN, a third person can eavesdrop to the information or link to the network. So, preventing these intrusions by detecting them has become one of the most demanding challenges. This paper, proposes an
improved watchdog technique as an effective technique for detecting malicious nodes based on a power aware hierarchical model. This technique overcomes the common problems in the original Watchdog mechanism. The main purpose to present this model is reducing the power consumption as a key factor
for increasing the network's lifetime. For this reason, we simulated our model with Tiny-OS simulator and then, compared our results with non hierarchical model to ensure the improvement. The results indicate that, our proposed model is better in performance than the original models and it has increased the lifetime of the wireless sensor nodes by around 2611.492 seconds for a network with 100 sensors.
The Counter Drone Systems (anti drone) Market Industry is expected to grow from USD 3,965.0 Million in 2022 to USD 8,749.0 Million by 2022, at a CAGR of 18.7% between 2022 and 2032.
Investigating Wireless and Internet of Things Technologies Security Threats a...ijwmn
Wireless and mobile devices are part of our lives. Wireless technology encompasses Internet of Things (IoT). Some key features of these devices are sensors, connectivity, and artificial intelligence and they can be found in health clinics, homes, buildings, vehicles, cities, wearables, etc. However, wireless and IoT technologies are sources of a variety of security threats to privacy and data and are becoming targets for attackers or hackers. In this paper, the authors strive to answer to the following research questions: 1) What types of threats can wireless and IoT technologies pose? 2) What type of threats can be exploited for attack and how? 3) What techniques are used to mitigate the threats and attacks?
4) What can wireless and IoT users do to protect their privacy and data? As a result, we investigate different types of security threats and attacks, and common security
countermeasures used in wireless and IoT.
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WIRELESS SPY DEVICES: A REVIEW OF TECHNOLOGIES AND DETECTION
METHODS
Dinesh Sathyamoorthy*
, Mohd Jalis Md Jelas & Shalini Shafii
Instrumentation and Electronics Technology Division (BTIE), Science & Technology Research
Institute for Defence (STRIDE), Ministry of Defence, Malaysia
*
E-mail: dinesh.sathyamoorthy@stride.gov.my
ABSTRACT
Wireless spy devices (WSDs) are surveillance equipment, such as listening bugs or cameras, hidden
in objects or covertly placed in rooms. Surveillance using WSDs is one of the main methods of
recording conversations for both intelligence gathering as well as criminal charges. However, WSDs
have also been abused for nefarious purposes, such as industrial espionage and blackmail. This paper
is aimed at reviewing WSD technologies, in terms of types, energy sources and modes of operations.
Methods used for detecting WSDs, focusing on radio frequency (RF) detectors, spectrum analysis and
nonlinear junction detectors (NLJDs), are also be discussed.
Keywords: Wireless spy devices (WSDs); active and passive WSDs; radio frequency (RF) detector;
spectrum analysis; nonlinear junction detector (NLJD).
1. INTRODUCTION
Surveillance is defined as the collective action of official gathering of information on persons for the
purpose of preventing crime and terrorism, or prosecuting offenders. It includes human and
technological gazing where officials observe the physical movements and activities of persons. These
observations can be used for identification or may act to advance an investigation as a component of a
larger body of evidence, such as in the case of closed-circuit television (CCTV) data. It also involves
the acquisition of personal data, which includes the collection of biographical biometric or
transactional data on individuals harvested from personal communications, electronic transactions,
identifiers, records or other documents. This involves voice or documentary information that can be
used in criminal investigations or prosecutions (Bloss, 2007; Lyon et al., 2013; Maurer et al., 2014).
The annual value of the retail market for surveillance tools increased from almost zero in 2001 to
approximately USD 5 billion a year in 2011. This significant increase of demand is due to the 9/11
terrorist attacks, as well as attacks in Bali, Madrid, London and Mumbai, which have underlined the
need for better intelligence-gathering capabilities. Furthermore, new technologies have generated vast
quantities of data, posing novel challenges for legal and regulatory frameworks, but also creating
unprecedented opportunities for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to use that data (Bloss,
2007; Valentino-Devries et al. 2011; Maurer et al., 2014).
Wireless spy devices (WSDs) are surveillance equipment, such as listening bugs or cameras, hidden
in objects or covertly placed in rooms. Surveillance using WSDs is one of the main methods of
recording conversations for intelligence gathering as well as criminal charges. In fact, multi-million
dollar investigations and trials are often based almost entirely on conversations of people caught
making incriminating statements, recorded via WSDs (Peterson, 2001, 2007; Graham & McGowan,
2011; Lyon et al., 2013).
However, WSDs have also been abused for nefarious purposes, such as industrial espionage and
blackmail. Furthermore, the design and manufacture of WSDs are no longer limited to specialised
markets. WSDs are consumer items that are falling in price, and can be bought via mail order
2. 131
catalogues and the internet. As the value of protected information increases, the threat potential and
available WSD technologies also increases (Peterson, 2001, 2007; Lyon et al., 2013; Maurer et al.,
2014).
This paper is aimed at reviewing WSD technologies, in terms of types, energy sources and modes of
operations. Methods used for detecting WSDs, focusing on radio frequency (RF) detectors, spectrum
analysis and nonlinear junction detectors (NLJDs), will also be discussed. This review is conducted
based on the abundance of literature on the related topics, particularly in the field of counter-
surveillance, and the authors’ experience as members of the Science & Technology Research Institute
for Defence (STRIDE) team that conducts WSD detection.
2. WSD TECHNOLOGIES
WSDs are placed in areas where conversations usually occur, such as meeting rooms, offices and
vehicles. They can be hidden in wall sockets, light switches, lamps, paintings, ceilings, walls and air
vents. In high-level operations, WSDs have also been placed in park benches and cafes frequented by
the targets. WSDs are now available in numerous shapes and forms, with many appearing as common
everyday items, including electrical adapters, clothes hooks, cups and fake plants. Another type of
WSD is that which is worn on the body by an informant or infiltrator, such as in watches, pens,
identifications tags and tie pins (Figure 1) (Peterson, 2001, 2007; Davis, 2004; Graham & McGowan,
2011).
Figure 1: WSDs of various shapes and forms.
WSDs require an energy source to operate. In sophisticated devices, small but powerful batteries are
used that can last for months. In cheaper models, battery packs are strapped together and hidden along
with the microphone and / or camera, though these are more easily detected, and must sooner or later
be replaced with fresh batteries (Figure 2). WSDs can also be wired to household or vehicle energy
sources (Figure 3) (Peterson, 2001, 2007; Graham & McGowan, 2011).
Figure 2: WSDs powered by 9 V batteries.
3. 132
Figure 3: A WSD powered by fluorescent light.
WSDs can be categorised into two classes; active and passive. Active WSDs transmit recorded data
(voice and / or video) wirelessly via RF to a receiver, which is usually in the vicinity (i.e., a nearby
observation post or vehicle) (Figures 4 and 5). The proximity of the receiver will depend on the
effective range of the device. In some cases, police have used planes to receive transmissions when it
is not possible to get a ground vehicle close enough to a WSD. Buildings and heavy traffic can disrupt
transmissions, depending on the device. At times, police have to use abandoned buildings, rooftops or
other areas in order to receive transmissions from a device. On the other hand, passive WSDs do not
transmit signals, but rather only record data in an internal memory or external memory card (Figure
6). This would make it harder for the device to be detected by scanners, but the surveillance team
would require periodic access to it (Peterson, 2001, 2007; Taylor, 2005; Graham & McGowan, 2011).
Figure 4: Active WSDs and their respective wireless receivers.
Figure 5: An officer on the ground viewing video received from an active WSD.
(Source: Davis (2004))
4. 133
Figure 6: A passive WSD making use of an external memory card.
Most frequently, small and easily concealed audio microphones (Figure 7) are used for WSDs. Some
WSDs also used laser microphones that bounce lasers off a hard surface. Vibrations on the surface
caused by sound waves change the way the laser is reflected to the receiver, allowing sound recording
(Figure 8) (Peterson, 2001, 2007; Davis, 2004; Graham & McGowan, 2011).
Figure 7: Concealed audio microphones.
Figure 8: A laser microphone, consisting of: Left, an infrared laser transmitter used to detect vibrations
on a surface; Right, a phototransistor that picks up the reflected infrared laser light and converts the
signal into audio.
Digital cameras continue to offer ever-increasing capability in smaller packages for lower cost.
Coupled with the greater ease with which digital imagery can be analysed and manipulated, this has
led to the steady decline of analog cameras for most purposes. Microelectronics have allowed these
devices to be built very small for easy concealment (Figure 9). There is an inverse relationship
between small size and resolution, but this kind of surveillance equipment usually offers adequate
capability when used close to the target. Software can be used to collate and evaluate footage, but has
5. 134
limited ability to identify specific individuals or objects. Cameras which provide imagery outside the
visible light spectrum are also available, but are more expensive. Infrared imaging is the most
common, but models which provide imaging using other kinds of electromagnetic emissions, such as,
x-ray and gamma rays, are also available (Peterson, 2001, 2007; Graham & McGowan, 2011)).
Figure 9: Concealed digital cameras.
3. WSD DETECTION METHODS
3.1 RF Detector
RF detectors (Figure 10) are used to detect RF signals transmitted in given proximities. A RF detector
is usually able to sweep a room or area for bugs and warn the user about active RF transmitters
(Peterson, 2001, 2007; Taylor, 2005; Savry & Vacherand, 2010; Graham & McGowan, 2011). RF
detectors are also used to detect unauthorised wireless communications in restricted areas, which is
usually followed by the immediate jamming of the corresponding signal (RABC, 2001; Sambhe et al.,
2008; Mishra, 2009; Burke & Owen, 2010). In addition, RF detectors provide important protection to
pacemaker users (Pinski & Trohman, 2002a, b; Patel et al., 2007; Seidman et al., 2010), and to those
who work in the presence of RF or microwave hazards (Curtis, 2003; MOL, 2009; Wu et al., 2010;
TransGrid, 2012).
(a) (b) (c) (d)
Figure 10: Examples of RF detectors: (a) Lanmda (model LM-DC2) (b) Skynet (model XB-68) (c) Mini
Gadgets (model CD-RFLD) (d) Comenzi (model RFS-DT1).
The performance of RF detectors is dependent on two key parameters; operating bandwidth and
power level threshold. A number of WSDs are designed to transmit signals with low power levels in
order to avoid detection (Peterson, 2001, 2007; Davis, 2004; Taylor, 2005; Graham & McGowan,
2011). A RF detector with low power level threshold is required for detection of such devices.
However, if the detector has a power level threshold that is too low, it could cause false alarms, such
as from mobile phones or Bluetooth devices. In addition, RF detectors with larger operating
bandwidths allow for the detection of a wider range of transmitted signal frequencies (Peterson, 2001,
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2007; Taylor, 2005; Savry & Vacherand, 2010). In a previous study (Dinesh et al., 2011), the
determination of suitable RF detectors for detection of WSDs was conducted via the measurement of
operating bandwidth and power level threshold (Figure 11).
Figure 11: The study conducted in Dinesh et al. (2011) on the determination of suitable RF detectors for
detection of WSDs via the measurement of operating bandwidth and power level threshold.
While RF detectors are a cheap and effective method for detecting RF transmissions from WSDs, they
are not able to provide specific information on the signals detected, such as frequency, power level
and content, and hence, can be susceptible to false detections. Furthermore, RF detectors are not high
precision meters. The power level thresholds for the RF detectors are not fixed for the respective
devices' operating bandwidths, but rather vary with frequency, as demonstrated in Dinesh et al. (2011)
(Figure 12).
Figure 12: Power level thresholds of the RF detectors shown in Figure 10.
(Source: Dinesh et al. (2011)
3.2 Spectrum Analysis
A spectrum analyser measures the magnitude of an input signal versus frequency within the full
frequency range of the instrument. Its primary use is to analyse RF signals in terms of dominant
frequency, power, distortion, harmonics, bandwidth and other spectral components. The display of a
spectrum analyser has frequency on the horizontal axis and amplitude on the vertical axis (Witte,
2002; Peterson, 2014). Furthermore, there are spectrum analysers that have been tailor made for the
7. 136
detection and localisation of anomalous rogue transmissions, such as from WSDs (Figure 13). These
spectrum analysers typically have demodulation functions which are used to view the content of the
WSD transmissions (Figure 14).
(a) (b) (c)
Figure 13: Recent technologies in signal tracking and detection allow for the fast and effective
identification and localisation of RF transmissions from WSDs: (a) Tektronix’s H600 RF Hawk
(b) Rohde & Schwarz’s PR100 (c) REI’s Oscor Green.
Figure 14: REI’s Oscor Green spectrum analyser being used to demodulate the transmission content of a
WSD.
Spectrum analysers are also used in wireless communications to determine out-of-band and spurious
emissions. For example, cellular radio systems must be checked for harmonics of the carrier signal
that might interfere with other systems operating at the same frequencies as the harmonics. Engineers
and technicians are also very concerned about distortion of the message modulated onto a carrier.
Spectrum monitoring is another important frequency-domain measurement activity. Government
regulatory agencies allocate different frequencies for various radio services, such as broadcast
television and radio, mobile phone systems, and police and emergency communications. It is critical
that each of these services operates at the assigned frequency and stays within the allocated channel
bandwidth. Transmitters and other intentional radiators often must operate at closely spaced adjacent
frequencies. A key performance measure for the power amplifiers and other components used in these
systems is the amount of signal energy that spills over into adjacent channels and causes interference
(Webb, 2007; Molisch, 2011; Peterson, 2014).
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3.3 Nonlinear Junction Detector (NLJD)
The methods discussed thus far are only applicable to active WSDs, whereby detection is based on
identification of signals transmitted by the WSDs. However, these methods are not applicable for
passive WSDs, which do not transmit signals.
NLJDs (Figure 15) are designed for detecting devices that contain semiconductor elements, such as
diodes, transistors and circuits. The operating principle of a NLJD is based on transmission of a clean
RF signal, with no harmonics or audio modulation, on the investigated object, and analysis of levels
of second and third harmonic signals reflected from the object. By comparing the received signal
strengths of these two harmonics, the operator can distinguish if the target location contains a
dissimilar metal non-linear junction, such as some rusty nails, or an actual semiconductor (PN)
junction (Figure 16). The boundary areas of PN junctions are nonlinear, in that when lluminated with
a RF carrier, they will generate successive harmonics of the initial illumination carrier signal, without
requiring the item to be powered on. In nature, a similar junction is often created between two
dissimilar metals of a catalyst. A true PN junction and a natural junction can be differentiated by
comparing the received signal strengths of the different harmonics generated. True PN junctions
generate strong even harmonics (second, fourth, sixth, etc.) while dissimilar metals create strong odd
harmonics (third, fifth, seventh, etc.). In addition, a harmonic signal from a true PN junction will be
quiet when audio demodulated. Since the illumination RF carrier is clean and unmodulated, the even-
order harmonics will also be clean and unmodulated. In comparison, the odd-order harmonics from
dissimilar metals tend to be noisy when audio demodulated (GIG, 2010; GBPPR, 2010; Graham &
McGowan, 2011; WCS, 2014).
Figure 15: NLJDs being used to detect WSDs.
Figure 16: Operation of a NLJD.
(Adapted from GBPPR (2010))
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The conversion efficiency of the illuminated NLJD signal to harmonic signals is determined by the
harmonic cross section of the nonlinear components in the WSD. The greater the cross section, the
larger the amplitude of the radiated harmonic energy. The diode elements in a WSD have a harmonic
power output curve that is exponential. However, there is a saturation limit that is reached after a
certain level of irradiation. When a nonlinear junction reaches saturation, no further increase in
harmonic amplitude occurs even if irradiation power is increased. The amplitude of the harmonic
signal produced by a nonlinear junction is very strongly dependent on transferring power from the air
to the nonlinear junction. This is influenced by the resonant frequency of the junction which is
derived, in part, from the area and thickness of the junction. This resonance is directly related to
frequency of illumination and hence, it is imperative for maximum detection probability (maximum
excitation of the nonlinear junction) that the frequency of the NLJD be dynamic or tunable, given the
wide impedance variations expected to be found in WSDs (WCS, 2014).
A NLJD typically has an antenna and a control unit. The antenna is mounted on an extendable pole,
and is used to emit and collect the signals (with a duplexer). The control unit is usually a multiple
channel, highly sensitive radio receiver tuned to specific second and third harmonic frequencies. The
detector automatically determines the best receiving frequency channel free of noise and distortion in
order to provide maximum sensitivity for the detection (GIG, 2010; GBPPR, 2010; Graham &
McGowan, 2011; WCS, 2014).
4. CONCLUSION
This manuscript provided a review of WSD technologies and methods for detection of WSDs. WSDs
are available in numerous shapes and forms, with many appearing as common everyday items, using
internal batteries, or external household or vehicle energy sources. WSDs can be categorised into two
classes: active, which transmits recorded data via RF; and passive, which only records the data. While
RF detectors and spectrum analysis are effective methods for detection of active WSDs, NLJDs are
more appropriate for detection of both active and passive WSDs.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The figures in this manuscript were obtained from casual browsing of the internet. The formation of
STRIDE’s WSD detection team in June 2012 was the brainchild of Datuk Dr. Abdul Ghaffar Ramli,
former Director-General of STRIDE, and the authors are grateful to him for his guidance and support.
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