New study finds that potato chip bags are listening to your every word

New study finds that potato chip bags are listening to your every word
(Image credit: YouTube.com/AbeDavis'Research)

Researchers at MIT, Adobe, and Microsoft joined forces to develop an algorithm that is able to recreate an audio signal by studying the tiny vibrations of objects.

The team recorded videos of aluminum foil, the surface of a glass of water, the leaves of a plant, and a potato chip bag, and then extracted audio signals. In the case of the potato chip bag, researchers filmed people talking 15 feet away behind soundproof glass, yet were still able to recover "intelligible speech from the vibrations of the bag," MIT reports.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.