"Could Your Vacuum be Listening to You?"

A team of researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) captured speech, music, and other sounds by gathering information from a popular vacuum robot's laser-based navigation system and applying techniques in signal processing and deep learning. This study brings attention to the possibility of manipulating devices that use Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology to collect sound, even though the devices do not have a microphone. This article continues to discuss the experiments conducted by the UMD researchers to demonstrate that popular robotic household vacuum cleaners can be hacked to record speech and music remotely. 

The University of Maryland reports "Could Your Vacuum be Listening to You?"