
Teenager invents vehicular antitheft system - kirubakaran
http://www.hackaday.com/2008/07/30/teenager-invents-vehicular-antitheft-system/
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lvecsey
Theres a funny story of a mac laptop owner that set the built in camera to
record frames, so that when it was stolen he actually got some pictures taken
of the crook flipping it open. Similarly maybe this system should be wifi
based, as a small embedded computer, so that whenever it is in range you can
interact with it.

For SMS messaging it he uses a go-phone that might be reasonable because I
don't like the idea of devoting a SIM card and a regular mobile subscription
for this.

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vaksel
Seems way a little bit complicated, I still prefer the kill switch option.
Costs you like 3 bucks for a switch from radio shack and some spare wire you
have at home, and bam noone can steal it w/o knowing where the switch is.

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pmorici
Sounds like a good candidate for Ycombinator Africa edition.

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noonespecial
Cool. He made onstar in his spare time. Nice hack indeed.

As a side note, I really don't want onstar to add the ability to turn off the
ignition remotely!

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bprater
God willing, one day cell carriers will be open enough to do this hack without
needing a cellphone.

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bullseye
From the comments - "..can it shut down a _lion_ remotely? thats seems more
usefule in Kenya."

Reading that made the whole story worthwhile. :)

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newt0311
Interesting concern: What if some malicious hacker breaks the anti-theft
system and starts sending it arbitrary commands?

Just a thought. Still, very nice idea.

