Unsurv Technologies
Security & Privacy
KiCad
unsurv offline is a privacy friendly, small and lightweight PCB (45 mm x 32 mm) based on an ESP32 featuring a high quality GNSS receiver, accelerometer, and NFC capabilities. Using a combination of onboard features and OpenStreetMap (OSM) data, unsurv offline helps you collect and analyze location data in a privacy-friendly way. Originally conceived to better understand offline video surveillance, this fully open source project is here to help you find and develop a variety of custom use cases.
To visualize the expanding video surveillance network, this device can generate a daily report of your close encounters with surveillance cameras without exposing your location to any 3rd party. It does this by using a database of camera locations from the OSM on the SD card. Please watch our demo above for more information about this use case.
You can access your unsurv data easily using your smartphone (or any NFC Tag 4 capable reader) and the dynamic NFC tag integrated into the case. A tiny BMA400 accelerometer helps you save precious battery capacity by managing power-saving features. It can even be adapted as an input device with tap and double tap recognition or as a fitness tracker with step counter and running/walking detection.
The kit option includes a high quality 3D printed case with enough space to house a 300 mAh single cell LiPo battery, which can be charged via onboard USB. Do you have access to a 3D printer? Great! The case design files are open source, so you can choose the PCB + antenna version and print the case yourself.
unsurv offline is built to help track a variety of data points. You can track the surveillance cameras that have potentially seen you throughout your day. It will also do simple location logging, automated commute tracking, and map WiFi signal strength. This means you could log your daily commute by bike and ensure that nobody except you has the data. You could map WiFi signal strength in your city and create a map of free WiFi access points. If you use vehicles commercially and want to claim tax benefits, you could use unsurv offline to log each trip. Since unsurv offline is open source, you can utilize the source code to come up with your own custom uses.
Here is a short list of the provided use cases you can build upon:
surveillance tracker: tracks offline surveillance with the help of OpenStreetMap data and creates a daily report showing how much you have been affected
fitness tracker: counts your steps and distance travelled, can differentiate between standing / walking / running
location logger: simply logs location, time, average speed
mapping WiFi strength: location logger with added periodic WiFi strength measuring
All of these will work with the unsurv companion Android app that you’ve seen in the demo and will be added to an Arduino IDE library for ease of use later on. They can also be found on the unsurv GitHub repository.
Implementing an always-on location service on a smartphone is possible, but comes with certain drawbacks: it increases power draw and might not be sustainable throughout the day. Even worse, it potentially exposes your location to third parties, taking away from the privacy focus. unsurv offline solves for all of this as a customizable lightweight, portable, low-power board with every feature you need for powerful location tracking.
| unsurv-offline | cricket | Tracki | Abeeway Micro | TTGO T-Beam | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Size (mm) | 45 x 32 | 46 x 23 | 46 x 38 | 59 x 34 | 100 x 33 |
| Host | ESP32 | STM32L082 | Unknown | Unknown | ESP32 |
| Main access | NFC / SD card / App | LoRaWAN | App / Web | Web | LoRaWAN / Display |
| WiFi | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bluetooth | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Motion sensing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Open source | HW + SW | HW only | No | No | HW + SW |
| Requires subscription | No | No | $20 / month | No (for personal use) | No |
All files for unsurv offline are open source and editable with free tools. The PCB has been desinged using KiCad while the case is designed using FreeCAD You can follow development and have a look at the hardware design and software on our GitHub repository. You can also find the codebase for the Android companion app to interact with your device.
Please reach out with any questions using the Ask a technical question page, listed in the link below.
"...the open source unsurv offline board offer[s] users a privacy friendly, small, lightweight PCB loaded with an ESP32, GNSS receiver and featuring NFC."
"Unsurv,... is an offline privacy-friendly, small, lightweight PCB (43 mm x 32 mm) loaded with an ESP32, GNSS reciever and NFC capabilities."
"This week saw a rad retro Raspberry Pi Zero camera, 3D models on an ESP32, CircuitPython Day, and more maker madness! "
Produced by Unsurv Technologies in Stuttgart, Germany.
Sold and shipped by Crowd Supply.
Full kit including the PCB, case, and external NFC antenna
Stuttgart, Germany · unsurv.org
Creating tools to better monitor offline surveillance.
