The Visual Microphone

Without question, the NSA, CIA, FBI and significant others will cap on this tech in a NYC second.

They recovered intelligible speech from a video of a potato chip bag that was shot at a distance of 15 feet behind soundproof glass. The team also obtained useful audio signals from videos of aluminum foil, the surface of a glass of water, and the leaves of a potted plant.

The researchers, led by Abe Davis, a graduate student at MIT, will present their findings at the Siggraph computer graphics conference to be held next week in Vancouver, Canada.

Hal can relate to this, right? :)