High-performance mice can be used as a microphone to spy on users thanks to AI — Mic-E-Mouse technique harnesses mouse sensors, converts acoustic vibrations into speech

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have devised the Mic-E-Mouse technique, utilizing high-performance optical mouse sensors to convert acoustic vibrations into audible data through signal processing and machine learning. Mice with a DPI of 20,000 or higher are susceptible to this method, potentially turning them into eavesdropping devices when connected to compromised computers. By processing the raw audio data with digital signal processing and neural models, the researchers achieved a speech recognition accuracy of 42 to 61%. While this technique raises privacy concerns, it underscores the need for safeguards against such covert data extraction methods.