Stories: espionage and hidden earpieces
True stories about bugs, covert communication and the inventions that led to the micro earpiece. Checked against sources.
-
A radio in the helmet: how American football was ahead of its time in 1956
Long before anyone had heard of micro earpieces, a coach from Cleveland had the idea of speaking straight into a player's ear. It ended in eavesdropping, a ban and the idea's return almost 40 years later.
-
"The Thing": a battery-free bug hidden in a gift for an ambassador
A wooden seal, a gift from children, and seven years in the ambassador's study. Inside, a device with no battery and no wires, designed by the inventor of the first electronic musical instrument.
-
Acoustic Kitty and an embassy full of microphones: the strangest bugs of the Cold War
The Cold War was the golden age of bugging. Some ideas were brilliant, others so absurd that without declassified documents they would be hard to believe.
-
The history of the induction loop: from a 1937 patent to the micro earpiece
The loop you wear around your neck with a micro earpiece has almost two centuries of physics behind it and nearly 90 years of history as a device. It all started with helping people with hearing loss.
-
Where is exam cheating a crime? Countries with the harshest penalties (outside Asia)
In Poland, cheating in the school-leaving exam gets the exam cancelled. In many countries it does not stop there: fines and even several years in prison are possible. An overview of laws from Europe, Africa, America and Oceania.
-
Morse code under the shirt and a phone in the toilet: hidden electronics scandals in chess
Chess is a game where a single hint can decide the result. No wonder some of the most inventive, and most embarrassing, attempts at cheating with hidden electronics happened in chess.