∞ Video: Hacker takes over Times Square video with an iPhone

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I saw this video this morning and thought it was really interesting. I don’t know if it’s real, but it certainly looks good to me.

[ad#Google Adsense 300x250 in story]A man apparently used a homemade transmitter plugged into his iPhone 4 to take over video screens around New York’s Times Square over the weekend. He used a video repeater to take over the screens.

“It doesn’t matter what shape or size the hacked screen is because the hack video will simply keep its correct dimensions and the rest of the hacked space will stay black,” the man says.

He said he chose Times Square because there are lots of video screens to test it with. At one point he buys a balloon and uses it to take over a screen high above the city.

Pretty cool if it can be done. If it’s fake, good job.


  • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

    Can’t stop the signal.

  • http://www.thomasfitzgeraldphotography.com fxgeek

    It’s a fake. An EXTREMELY well done fake but a fake. I work in the television industry, and If a signal was being interrupted the way they claimed they were doing then it wouldn’t have flickered on in a square pattern like that. Also, when he held it close to the video wall (the shot with four screens) it would have been replicated on all four screens as the feed to those screens would each have been a separate signal. Also, I just don;t hink it’s possible to do that like that anyway. All those screens would be hard wired and that would only really work if they were recieving a signal wirelessly.

  • Gustav

    I call fake as well. The device is connected to the headphone jack. Apple doesn’t send video out of the headphone jack.

  • http://twitter.com/david_jonas David Jonas

    It’s nice to see these ideas around! It’s fake but still a nice concept. Another reason why I know it is a fake besides the ones fxgeek said is that if you pause the video on the balloon shot where you see both the phone and the video wall, you can see that both videos are synchronized to the frame. I mean, there is no delay at all between the source (iPhone) and target (video wall). This is impossible specially after he said that the receiver “enhances” the video :)

    Second and most obvious of all… the iPhone does NOT send video through the audio input/output on top of the phone but from the docking/charging plug on the bottom :)

    Well done anyway!! if you are interested in another great use for the times square screens then you might want to check out “Times square to Arts Square” project http://www.timessquaretoartsquare.org/