A team of researchers at the University of Michigan, working with another group in Japan, detailed a number of attacks just like this one in a recent paper. All of the attacks use focused light to manipulate modern smart devices, sometimes from more than a football field away. How does it work? According to the researchers: In other words, the built-in microphones that detect sound waves in your voice will react to focused light in the same way. Using a laser modulator, a hacker can record their voice issuing a command, and then transform a beam of light into pulses that mimic the same pattern. Once it’s beamed onto the device, it reacts the same way as if someone were talking to it.
