The hidden background noise that can catch criminals
Tom Scott3 HN recommenders · recommended in 2 months, 2022-2025
5.8M views · 4 years ago · explainer · evergreen
Tom Scott explains Electrical Network Frequency analysis, where hum from the power grid in a recording is matched against grid logs to date and place it. He talks to a researcher and sets them a challenge.
The go-to short, accessible explainer for mains hum forensics, linked whenever recording authenticity or timestamps come up.
2:00Shouting in the Datacenter
Bryan Cantrill
5.7M views • 17 years ago
16:45Inside a smart meter, and the REAL problem with them.
bigclivedotcom
1.7M views • 8 years ago
4:59HotPlug Basic Demonstration
WiebeTech
135K views • 19 years ago
12:32Protecting Privacy with MATH (Collab with the Census)
minutephysics
451K views • 7 years ago
22:29The Power Grid: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
LastWeekTonight
7.3M views • 5 years ago
2:48Series circuit - 3 LEDs
Henryk Gasperowicz
620K views • 14 years ago
1:14Aurora Test Footage
MuckRock
100K views • 10 years ago
0:29Dial Up Modem Handshake Sound - Spectrogram
Bitcore
3.6M views • 13 years ago
1:00:57Tobias Engel: SS7: Locate. Track. Manipulate.
media.ccc.de
84K views • 11 years ago
1:33How noisy is a wind farm?
The Telegraph
349K views • 15 years ago
3:36Hold music used to sound better. Here's why.
Tom Scott
2.9M views • 8 years ago
23:53D/A and A/D | Digital Show and Tell (Monty Montgomery @ xiph.org)
FL Studio
647K views • 13 years ago
1:22The Dark Knight - High Frequency Generator Scene
Jorge Herrera
390K views • 10 years ago
1:54The Loudness War
Matt Mayfield Music
2.7M views • 20 years ago
29:05Datacenters Behaving Like Acoustic Weapons
Benn Jordan
1.8M views • 8 months ago
1:22:4029C3 Panel: Jesselyn Radack, Thomas Drake, William Binney on whistleblowing and surveillance
thisdayinwikileaks
35K views • 13 years ago
2:19:51[LIVE] How to Achieve Proper Grounding - Rick Hartley - Expert Live Training (US)
Altium
1M views • 7 years ago
12:24Elliptic Curve Back Door - Computerphile
Computerphile
554K views • 8 years ago
26:29Watch electricity hit a fork in the road at half a billion frames per second
AlphaPhoenix
3M views • 2 years ago
16:48What Really Happened During the Texas Power Grid Outage?
Practical Engineering
3.7M views • 5 years ago
8 comments from Hacker News
Reminds me of the 'mains hum' technique that was used to identify videos. Can also be done with light. ▶ this video link
Probably not practical but there was an interesting video by Tom Scott where investigators used the electrical hum background noise to determine when something was recorded. Maybe there is a way to audio record something to prove location. ▶ this video
I'm writing a open-source library ( link ) and a webapp ( link ) that detects the Utility Grid noise emitted by electrical devices (A/C, motors, appliances ...) from Video/Audio recording. It then tries to date the recording by matching it to historical data. The signal processing part is getting decent. I'm still trying to collect more reference signals in RU, UK, China and Japan. Tom Scott made a video about the idea: ▶ this video
According to a Tom Scott's video[1], you can use background noise emitted by electricity to prove that a recording has been taken at a certain time and place. [1]: ▶ this video
A video on the same subject: ▶ this video I really enjoy Tom Scott. Everything he puts out is wonderfully concise.
If this is interesting to you or your kids, here's a less detailed but pretty accessible video [1] explaining how mains hum forensics work, complete with British accent. [1] ▶ this video
If you haven't already seen tom Scott's video on background noise giving the location of a recording due to power line frequencies being subtly different I recommend it. ▶ this video
There are companies that already provide this kind of service so it might be interesting for you to combine efforts: ▶ this video