Comments on: High Tech Tagger Terminator

High Tech Tagger Terminator

bz — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 09:34:48 -0800

Police using aerosol can's distinct audio signature to bust graffiti artists. An Escondido, CA company, Traptech, offers an area monitoring system, Taggertrap, to law enforcement that allegedly distinguishes the sound of an aerosol can in the act of spraying. How soon before someone builds an aerosol audio signature cancellation device to fight back?

By: bz

bz — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 09:40:36 -0800

Of course, maybe a cancellation system could be as simple as a cheap boombox playing an audio recording of a tagger at work to create Taggertrap false positives.

By: kindall

kindall — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 09:46:48 -0800

How soon before someone builds an aerosol audio signature cancellation device to fight back? This would increase the cost of the can, so manufacturers would never do it, as nobody would pay extra for "vandalism safe" paint cans. I think a good way to defeat this would be to simply paint something -- a bike or whatever -- in an area protected by this device. Repeatedly.

By: jon_kill

jon_kill — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 09:50:01 -0800

A better way would be to get the permission of building owners - many would love to have a wall protected against tags and scribbles by a major and respectable graf piece - instead of just tagging where you damn well please.

By: bz

bz — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 10:01:24 -0800

Er, um, actually, kindall, I was thinking about a portable electronic countermeasure device rather than some change in the design of aerosol cans.

By: Diddly

Diddly — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 10:11:45 -0800

This was already invented in an old episode of Police Squad!.

By: kindall

kindall — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 10:29:34 -0800

To effectively cancel the noise, though, the cancellation device would have to be quite near the source of the sound. The higher the pitch, the closer it would have to be. If you knew where the mic was, you could of course put the cancellation device there, or simply cover it in sound-deadening material.

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 10:34:53 -0800

If you knew where the mic was, you could of course put the cancellation device there, or simply cover it in sound-deadening material. Or take a brick to it.

By: kablam

kablam — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 10:37:21 -0800

The easier method is tried and true. Right now, the punishment fits the crime. You want less graffitti? Make the punishment harsher than the crime. I'm sure creative sadists could come up with something wildly inappropriate. Caning? Public humiliation? Chain gangs?

By: thomcatspike

thomcatspike — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 11:15:06 -0800

I think a good way to defeat this would be to simply paint something -- a bike or whatever -- in an area protected by this device. Repeatedly. How sensitive is an "aerosol audio signature"? Sprays like, whipping cream, hair spray, Raid & CO2 would it distinguish them form paint. Imagine someone using fix-a-flat having a patrol car sicced on them.

By: snarfodox

snarfodox — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 11:53:43 -0800

> If you knew where the mic was, you could of course put the cancellation device there, or simply cover it in sound-deadening material. The surveyor model looks just like a spotlight and can presumably be mounted up high. Even a cheap pressure zone microphone can pick up amazingly faint noises at quite a distance, so height is unlikely to be a problem. I seriously doubt that this product would be used in isolation. These things would be very cheap to manufacture compared to a camera and wouldn't increase the cost of a security installation by a relatively large amount. A collection of these things hooked up to a big security consultancy firm's existing surveilance network could be set to alarm a human with access to a nearby camera. Deploying it in that way also enormously reduces the effectiveness of false positive 'attacks'.

By: abcde

abcde — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 12:34:50 -0800

As a techno-positivist, I think this is great. But that's me :P

By: Satapher

Satapher — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 12:46:09 -0800

Just wait until the sea of vine overtakes all your precious human structures. Soon my inevitables.

By: mishaco

mishaco — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 14:45:17 -0800

ha . you can't catch me . i don't use spray paint .

By: subgenius

subgenius — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 14:56:40 -0800

Police using aerosol can's distinct audio signature to bust graffiti artists. I'm sure they're using that to bust many people who spraypaint buildings, including graffiti artists. I'm all for the four elements of hip-hop, culture jamming, etc., but most people who experiment with graf tend to suck. I highly recommend Style Wars, in part because you see that (despite the fact many of these people were talented and threw up really amazing pieces under bizarre circumstances) the NYC subway system is much nicer now and, moreover, how many of the people from the golden age of NYC graffiti, again, tended to suck or were purely in it for the joy of vandalism. 99% of these people should channel their creative energies into learning how to breakdance or build puppets or something.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 15:16:25 -0800

thank god. now we can better focus our efforts fighting terrism without fear of graffiti distraction.

By: thomcatspike

thomcatspike — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 16:58:39 -0800

ha . you can't catch me . i don't use spray paint . You're a marker since you don't paint.

By: mishaco

mishaco — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 17:06:30 -0800

marker ? care to define that ? i paint .

By: kaemaril

kaemaril — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 17:54:08 -0800

Of course, now all you've got to do to really piss off the police is wander around the streets applying deodorant ... :)

By: Twang

Twang — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 23:46:38 -0800

So ya make a little tin cone or some other mute (like a trumpet's) that you spray through, changing the spraycan acoustic signature to something else. How long 'til kids find out how to ffffffffffffft close enough to make false triggers?

By: backOfYourMind

backOfYourMind — Tue, 16 Mar 2004 02:50:42 -0800

I read somewhere a while ago (here maybe?) that graf has become more about tags than 'pieces' over time partially because the increasing prevalance of 24 hour convenience stores, supermarkets and pubs has meant that it's harder to find an area that no-one is going to be walking past for 2-3 hours, so there's no time for more complex stuff. I also notice that more taggers seem to be using stencils and home-made stickers, presumably because they're faster to put up and reduce the chance of being caught. Maybe the TaggerTrap will usher in a new trend in 'brush tagging'. Watch for increased sales of Taubman's house-paint sample tins...