Linux kernel versions 2.5.32 have the ability to turn your computer's speaker into a microphone.
A speaker is also a microphone…2.5.32 will go into the history
books as the kernel that implemented voice recognition for all AT class
computers…
Greg "LinuxMan" Cavanagh notes, "Umm, you mean every machine broken into is now a listening device. Wow."
Update: Seth sez:
I think the person who wrote that misread that thread (taking
something written as a joke seriously).There is a configuration option called CONFIG_INPUT_PCSPKR, and
someone was asking why the PC speaker was in the "input" category.
Someone responded by making a joke to the effect that the kernel now
had support for sound input through the speaker, but that was only a
joke.In the most recent released kernel, the file drivers/input/misc/pcspkr.c
(which is the driver enabled by CONFIG_INPUT_PKSPKR) clearly performs
only output operations and not inputs.
(via JOHO)
