SuperEar: Eavesdropping on Mobile Voice Calls via Stealthy Acoustic Metamaterials

TL;DR

SuperEar demonstrates a portable, low-cost acoustic metamaterial system capable of eavesdropping on mobile phone calls outdoors at significant distances, revealing new privacy vulnerabilities.

Contribution

This work introduces the first practical, portable acoustic metamaterial device for outdoor eavesdropping on mobile calls, surpassing previous range and reliability.

Findings

Over 80% success rate in recovering call audio at 4.6 meters

Uses low-cost 3D-printed parts and off-the-shelf hardware

Extends eavesdropping range more than twice previous methods

Abstract

Acoustic eavesdropping is a privacy risk, but existing attacks rarely work in real outdoor situations where people make phone calls on the move. We present SuperEar, the first portable system that uses acoustic metamaterials to reliably capture conversations in these scenarios. We show that the threat is real as a practical prototype can be implemented to enhance faint signals, cover the full range of speech with a compact design, and reduce noise and distortion to produce clear audio. We show that SuperEar can be implemented from low-cost 3D-printed parts and off-the-shelf hardware. Experimental results show that SuperEar can recover phone call audio with a success rate of over 80% at distances of up to 4.6 m - more than twice the range of previous approaches. Our findings highlight a new class of privacy threats enabled by metamaterial technology that requires attention.