Device Analysis
Device Analysis is the twenty-sixth episode of TribeTwelve, and the 26th video of season 1. It was uploaded on August 3rd, 2011.
Description
This video was taken the morning after 'The Device' video. My tech friend Edward was visiting near my area, so I invited him to evaluate the device. He just confirmed my suspicions; this 'Observer' bastard has been monitoring me.
Transcript
[Shot of the device, laid out on a flat surface. Noah rotates the camera around the device, and then holds the device up to the camera. Noah picks up the solar panel part of the device and flips it over, revealing the intersecting eyes symbol, along with the text "WE ARE LISTENING". Noah sets the camera down and walks over to his bed to answer the phone. Visual distortion occurs.]
Noah: Hello? Hey, man. How you doin'? Yeah, man, I'm good. Uh, can you make it? Oh, awesome. Here, let me give you my address.
[Noah walks over to the camera and turns it off. Cut to black, then cut to a closeup of Noah.]
Noah: Hey, guys. Noah here. My buddy Edward's here with me, too.
[Noah turns the camera to face toward Edward.]
Edward: Hi.
[Noah turns the camera back toward himself. In the hallway behind Noah (in the right side of the video), a shadowy figure can be seen moving.]
Noah: And he and I go way back. We used to go to school together, way back when. He's down in Florida visiting his grandparents for the week and I'm very fortunate and thankful that he's willing to come over, 'cause a lot of people aren't. He also happens to be a tech guru, which is useful. He works at his dad's electronics shop. He's like his protege. What exactly do you do there?
[Noah turns the camera back toward Edward.]
Edward: Well, it's like you said. I work in my dad's electronics shop. We repair new and old electronics. That sort of thing.
Noah: Exactly. Great. Well, I know you know your way around electronics better than Picasso knows how to paint. So I need you, if you can, to help me figure out what the hell this thing is.
[Noah points the camera at the device, which is sitting on the table in front of them.]
Noah: What it does, or just any sort of information on it. I don't know what it is in the least, so if you could tell me anything about it, that would be very much appreciated.
Edward: Sure thing, man. I'll give it my best.
[Edward picks up the device and starts examining it.]
Edward: Well, just looking at this thing... I can tell it's made of different circuit board parts from various other devices. This top part here is a speaker. Under it is what looks to be the guts of a beeper or pager. Judging by the sidebar, might be a SingTel. Not sure.
Noah: That makes sense, 'cause it was beeping last night.
Edward: Oh. Well, the beeping you've been hearing is most likely coming from the pager, not this top speaker. See, there's a smaller pager speaker right here. Under this is what seems to be a computer fan. It's supposed to keep whatever this is from overheating, which is weird in itself, because pager components don't get particularly hot. It's connected to another smaller board. I'm not sure where it came from, but... Wait. That's a mic. I think it's a tiny microphone. I think this might be the innards of a sound recording module. There's an audio jack here. Looks like a standard 3.5mm TRS connecter leading to... What? It's a solar panel. A small solar panel. That's pretty interesting. The audio jack was converted into a power jack. The guy who made this re-soldered the connections. That might explain the 9-volt. Is there any heat that comes off of that?
Noah: Uh, yeah, actually. The battery was pretty hot when I picked it up. I took off the battery cap. I disconnected it since then.
Edward: So the fan is a heat sink for the battery, which is powering the device... but also storing the power. Solar panel looks like it could charge the 9-volt during the day, but not much. It's pretty tiny.
[Noah points to something on the device.]
Noah: What's that, though?
Edward: What's what?
Noah: The little metal thing sticking out of the side.
Edward: Not too sure. I think it might be an antenna. Yeah, my guess is that this thing records and transmits audio. I mean, whoever made this was no amateur. They knew what the hell they were doing. It's pretty well-soldered. What really strikes me as odd, though, is the USB cable. It connects into this here, but it's not even anything. It just hold the USB head. Where does this lead?
[Distortion. The video stutters.]
Edward: Let me see here. Yeah. In between the pager boards is another component that they soldered to the device. At the end of the USB cord... This could be a memory component. Flash memory, maybe. Possibly to store what it records. That's liable to heat up as well. Have you tried plugging it into your computer?
Noah: No way. I don't want to plug anything foreign into my computer. Last time I did that... plugged in unknown flash memory... It installed some crazy shit and my computer got hacked, so... Yeah, no, I'm not doing that.
Edward: Well I'll tell you what I can do. Let me take a few more looks at this and I'll give you my verdict on what you can do.
Noah: Alright. Thanks.
[Cut.]
Edward: Alright. This is the deal. Speaker is the oddball of this device. It's out of place. It doesn't seem to have a purpose. It might be activated by the USB cable. It connects right under it. This is a data USB cable, though. If you don't want your computer to recognize the drive, you can cut open the cable. Inside, there will probably be several colored wires.
[Distortion.]
Edward: From my experience, there'll probably be a red, green, white, and black one. The white and the green carry data and the others would be for power. If you cut the white and green ones, you'll turn the USB cord into a power cord. Plugging it in might activate the unit, but maybe nothing will happen. I don't know. This is a very impressive piece of work, Noah. Where did you get it?
Noah: Um... Garage sale. A few weeks back. I thought it looked cool.
Edward: How much did you get it for?
Noah: Twenty bucks? I don't remember.
Edward: 'Cause this is some serious stuff here. It's fascinating. It's like a spy walkie-talkie, or something. You could sell this for a lot more than twenty dollars. Do you know who made it? I mean, I'd want to shake their hand. They did a damn good job-
Noah: Edward, do you have to leave soon?
Edward: Uh, yeah. Actually... Shit. I should've been on the road ten minutes ago.
[Cut to black. The final frame of the video is a black-and-white image of a man standing in a field, with his face covered by a black smudge, along with the text "WE WILL HAVE YOU".]
Analysis
- The last frame of the video contains the words "WE WILL HAVE YOU" with a picture of a man standing in a field with a crossed out face in the center of the frame.
- The figure in the last frame of the video, when brightened, holds some resemblance to Edward.
- Behind Noah at 1:18, theObserver moves behind the wall.
Gallery
