I was blown away, and then some when she said it was waterproof. Or more specifically, put the stamp in some water, and it will come off. I’d assume that would include the microdot.
Christopher Knox yes that scary, like click on a link and you can be monitored by your phone, the rest of your life, or rather your phone’s ...You know this video you clicked on was a link?
@@Willam_J They almost certainly use contact lenses now. It's probably a contact lens with a small slot where the pupil would be that you can place the dot into.
@@Ali-mv3jc these days you can just use a pocket microscope more discretely. Though personally I would just the surveillance receiver and set up a transmitter in my room to play over the answers on a loop, which I’ve done before with a portable police scanner and invisible ear piece.
@@NoNo-rj2hl Considering how small phone camera sensors are. I have no doubt there are smaller ones that provide DSLR (or better) quality photos. Yeah. A high megapixel phone camera isn't as detailed as a lower megapixel dedicated camera. Excluding the now extinct point and shoots.
The Microdot...ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! We actually had that kind of technology back then?! How in the world did they have technology advanced enough at that time to print distinct letters that didn't bleed together in such a tiny space??? I find this absolutely incredible! Can you even imagine what we have these days that won't be revealed for another 50 years or whatever?
It's not printed. Essentially, you photograph the document and then project the image backwards through a microscope: you project the image through the eyepiece and that exposes film where the microscope slide would be.
yeah but it is depressing that we haven't been able to use all this technology to prevent mad people with daddy issues starting wars and blowing places up.. i think we need more weapon disabling innovations
@@RodrigoCh That's the same technology electronic chips were made since the 60s. Those nanometer transistor sizes (well, micrometer back then) are achieved the same way. I bet they could put even more text in there, however reading lens would have to be bigger and more sophisticated.
I love Jonna so much. She has such an endearing voice that makes you feel like you're listening to grandma's stories, but she's also a tough ex-CIA member. Love love love
What really surprised me is how, way back then, they could get photos in focus. Like, today if you take a "spy" photo with your Iphone and it's not still, the pic will come out blurry enough not to be able to read documents. These photos are sharp and centered. If you were to take that body cam and take a photo, you'd have to look a little awkward standing completely still at a weird angle taking the photo.....
It's because of exposure time. The iPhone will say "it's dark here" and use a slow shutter speed, which means that any motion will blur the photograph. The cameras these guys were using had a fixed shutter speed, so they'd take dark photographs if it was dark, and this would be corrected in development.
"The pigeons must have looked absolutely innocent." Camera zooms in on the photo pigeon's beady eyes and shakes while suspenseful music plays in the background. Me: Oh, yeah. Totally innocent, I'm sure.
You can look it up on Wikipedia. But, basically, you take a photograph of the document, and then project the negative backwards through a microscope onto a second piece of film. A large image at the eyepiece corresponds to a tiny image where the slide would be.
The Tessina Camera was also commonly used by the Stasi. It was available in different versions. Noiseless without a spring motor, noise reduced with nylon gears etc....
im curious about how much of this info she is able to talk about because they don't use it anymore or to get people to believe they don't use it anymore.
I was really hoping she was going to say that the matchbox camera had room in it for a few real matches so as to avoid awkward situations: "Oh, I see you've got a matchbox there, can you spare one?" "No, I'm sorry. I'm- uh, I'm all out. I just remembered." * tucks camera back into pocket * That's okay, I can iterate on the idea in a piece of writing sometime, and make it so. :)
Whenever people talk derogatorily or disrespectfully about old people I think of someone as impressive as this woman. We keep forgetting that people stay great, impressive and good or despicable and bad no matter age. Also we keep forgetting how invaluable solid life experience is.
Seriously I wish Jonna had more videos. Yet I understand that there’s probably far too much classified information that she could never share with anyone, especially RU-vid. I just love learning about this stuff and my childhood dream was to join the CIA or FBI.
I like Ms. Mendez. With both movie critiques and presentations on old practices and technologies, she's natural, clear, and interesting. She's an asset to RU-vid
Does anybody else find it funny that pigeons were used to spy? xD Edit: yall are idiots I said it as a joke since pigeons are considered to be the dumbest bird by most peoples standards
Thank You for sharing these Images and Descriptions I for Years have been reading Non Fiction Spy Books and watching videos now I finally can see what I have been reading about!
And some kinda evolved into jewelry, for example a while ago I got random adds for a small glass pendant (maybe half an inch or so) witch if you shine a light though it it project the sentence "I love you" in 50 languages, a nice and cute and definetly mind blowing little gift. And now hearing about microdot witch in essence is the same thing.
