![]() Still, other methods seek to work around these shortcomings. Prevailing conditions make this technology not as useful in all applications. Strictly speaking, Theremin had invented a way to point a laser at any given glass window, interpret its vibrations caused by human speech, and listen in on conversations going on within the room. The detector? An interferometer, which picked up the infrared beam’s reflection from the window. The cavity? An entire room within a building. The illuminator? A low-powered infrared beam. This time, the technology would be much more applicable to the day-to-day spying done by the Soviet forces. Buran would work on similar principles to that of The Thing, a powered “illuminator” like that of the microwave beams, a diaphragm on one edge of a cavity that could resonate through disturbances caused by human speech, and a detector that could interpret those vibrations. So, in 1947, Theremin would begin working on a project titled Operation Buran, “snowstorm” in Russian. The ultimate goal was complete wireless surveillance, while the microphone contained within The Thing was useful, it required the specific device planted within the spying location. Operation Snowstorm the First Laser Microphone But Beria demanded more from Theremin’s technology. Eisenhower, and countless top-secret strategy meetings held at the embassy. Through this act of espionage, the Soviet Union would be privy to conversations from the aftermath of WWII, the dinner party congratulating General Dwight D. Under the command of Lavrentiy Beria, one of the most influential and terrifying Secret Police Chiefs of Stalin’s Russia, Leon Theremin had covertly bugged the United States embassy in Russia, without ever having to step foot within their walls. (This same principle is used today in modern RFID scanners !) That energy would enter the cavity within The Thing, be altered by the sounds within, and be reflected back out by the radio’s antenna, only to be picked up again by the Soviets. Soviet Intelligence officers point a low-powered microwave beam (at around 330 MHz) into the embassy from a nearby building. Importantly, the microphone required no batteries, giving it an essentially unlimited lifespan. These changes in the size of the cavity, changed the capacitance of the circuit within, which could then be decoded as sound. The thin veneer of wood on the beak of the seal’s eagle worked as a diaphragm which, as United States officials spoke within the room, fluctuated and changed the size of the space within the cavity. The microphone worked as a sort of passive resonant cavity microphone. Soviet spies would utilize the microphone hidden within a small cavity, carved within the seal to eavesdrop on vital conversations of American security during the Cold War. Courtesy of the CryptoMuseum.įrom 1945 to 1952, the radio device, since dubbed “The Thing” would go unnoticed by American intelligence. The Seal of the United States of America, the second image displays where the microphone was placed within a cavity in the wood.
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