A text messaging calculator designed for cheating

[nidlaX]

I came across an interesting custom calculator while watching Dave's Casio FX-260 Solar II review:




According to this Instructables post, this started as an EE student's hobby project, which has now seemingly gone commercial. It replaces the internals of a cheap Chinese JS-82MS-A scientific calculator with a dot matrix display, micro, and Bluetooth. I wouldn't be too surprised if they go the ESP32 route in the near future.

You can find an eBay listing based out of Australia, but I'm not sure if that's where the student is from. There are also clones / derivatives of it being sold now for the Spanish speaking and other audiences.

Chinese people have done a Casio replacement PCB with built-in cellular and SMS capability from years ago, but that seemed pretty boutique.

Anyways, I feel like exam rooms need to be equipped with high resolution surveillance cameras and cheap SDRs monitoring all wireless channels in the future to thwart the new wave of cheaters. These devices will probably eventually be built and sold very cheaply, and there's little legal recourse against them.

[CopperCone]

Turning the classroom into darpas electronic warfare colleseum lol

I want a little drone with an antenna or a teachers assistant poking you with a yagi during the multivariable calculus final lol

More career opertunities for the tsa? Its so easy to cheat by peeking, the class of dufus that uses this technology will easily be identified

You just get sacked in two months when you dont know wtf is going on or a research professor realizes you are literarly retarded

[rsjsouza]

Anyways, I feel like exam rooms need to be equipped with...

Hah, no need to spend money. Just do like in classrooms in Brazil: no calculators allowed. Period.

(yeah, I understand the lobby and culture of using calculators in basic/elementary schools here, but things can be changed. Besides, doing mental calculations is really good for the Brain.  )

[james_s]

Or provide calculators and allow only the use of those provided.

That said, there is not much point in cheating, if you don't know the material then it will become apparent fairly quickly once one enters the job market.

[nidlaX]

You just get sacked in two months when you dont know wtf is going on or a research professor realizes you are literarly retarded

Or provide calculators and allow only the use of those provided.

That said, there is not much point in cheating, if you don't know the material then it will become apparent fairly quickly once one enters the job market.

The problem is that even mis-hiring people who don't know what they're doing is extremely costly. You've wasted time and money on recruiting, hiring, and training, and you've taken away opportunities from other people. The costs are substantial if you assess them from the perspective of societal welfare.

I think it would be fun (for both sides) to escalate the technological race in the classroom.

Hah, no need to spend money. Just do like in classrooms in Brazil: no calculators allowed. Period.

(yeah, I understand the lobby and culture of using calculators in basic/elementary schools here, but things can be changed. Besides, doing mental calculations is really good for the Brain.  )

I completely agree, but even if you take away the calculators, they can still use other covert communications devices like multi-pattern or directional vibrators (look at the calculator designer's other project on Instructables).

[CopperCone]

Yea its costly but i dont want no hd cameras and signals intelligence personel in a god damn class room. Thats insane jack booted gestapo thug shit. Having those shitty security cameras was unnerving enough.

Imagine getting harassed because an antenna picked up some spur. Leave that for freaking high security nuclear army bases.

And the university should give a shit about what its gonna cost some freaking defense contractor or multinational giant?

How about air conditioning, new dorms, nicer labs..
My campus had 1950s dorms with single windows and no ventilation, it would flood and the budgets wrre so thin the physics department would probobly kill to retain equipment built in the 50s which anyone from a corporate background would think is trash.

It was legit like some kinda shanty with a hobo recycling culture! Repairing and maintaining trash instead of doing research, i saw students datalogging radiation manually for 6 hour shifts because a data aquisition system was not in the budget (500$ ebay fluke hydra would work)

There are better ways to spend money without stressing students more.

How about having alligator clip wires in the electronics lab for the price of some insane survilence system???

You had the campus core of engineers setting up pallet bridges so students can get to the fucking room. Its insane.

[rstofer]

Most exam problems can be solved without a calculator.  There's a reason that only common angles are chosen for trig problems and, of course, calculators don't help at all with calculus unless they have features and in that case they won't be allowed.  My grandson took the wrong calculator to an exam (HP 48 GX) and couldn't use it because it has graphing capability.

As to cheating, why?  I'm darnn sure not going to help my competitor and there's no way he is going to help me.  We have to remember, we're all in this separately.

[Iwanushka]

Why the hell these things are being built and used, just open a f..king book, and using books is sometimes allowed and doesn't count as cheating because they are 500+ pages and you need brains to use the book...

[hans]

Closed book, no notes exam, no calculator - the exam is made in such a way that at most mental calculations are used. The rest is qualitative reasoning or calculus problems that are nice puzzles.
Actually. with calculator you may need to calculate some stuff, we can handle floating point numbers, still not a problem.

Closed book, with notes - You think you are well equipped. Turns out, all the formulas you need are either in the appendix, or were so vital to the course you should have remembered them.
And then you screw up one identity function. RIP.

Open book exams, usually no notes - The absolute worst. The book is there so you can look up 1 or 2 things, which you must know where they are in the book and how to use. In my experience, these exams are packed with difficult questions that require deep understanding of the material, that it is hard work to finish in time.

So this calculator is an impressive bit of kit, but I've hardly had the opportunity to use even a basic calculator in my undergrad and grad exams.
I also wouldn't sit in the front few rows with this device, though.

[dmills]

No calculator, but a university supplied set of 6 figure log tables....

Job done.

[Mr. Scram]

Hah, no need to spend money. Just do like in classrooms in Brazil: no calculators allowed. Period.

(yeah, I understand the lobby and culture of using calculators in basic/elementary schools here, but things can be changed. Besides, doing mental calculations is really good for the Brain.  )

What's the point teaching people outdated skills that are trivially automated, robbing higher level skills of their time in the classroom? That way it doesn't even matter whether you cheated or not.

Education already has the problem of not being in touch with what's asked in the real world. Besides, people who want to cheat will find ways to do so even if you banned everything.

[rsjsouza]

Hah, no need to spend money. Just do like in classrooms in Brazil: no calculators allowed. Period.

(yeah, I understand the lobby and culture of using calculators in basic/elementary schools here, but things can be changed. Besides, doing mental calculations is really good for the Brain.  )

What's the point teaching people outdated skills that are trivially automated, robbing higher level skills of their time in the classroom? That way it doesn't even matter whether you cheated or not.

Education already has the problem of not being in touch with what's asked in the real world. Besides, people who want to cheat will find ways to do so even if you banned everything.

At a certain point in my life I would have agreed with you, but in recent years I have seen so many people completely illiterate in the most fundamental math operations done in day-to-day activities (splitting checks, calculating sales tax, etc.) that I really think the electronic crutch does not bring any advantages other than a high level of dependency. Also, after I had kids I observed how important several fundamental mental gymnastics help further the development in other areas such as logic, methodical approach, etc.

[Mr. Scram]

At a certain point in my life I would have agreed with you, but in recent years I have seen so many people completely illiterate in the most fundamental math operations done in day-to-day activities (splitting checks, calculating sales tax, etc.) that I really think the electronic crutch does not bring any advantages other than a high level of dependency. Also, after I had kids I observed how important several fundamental mental gymnastics help further the development in other areas such as logic, methodical approach, etc.

It's a bit of a false dilemma. There is no choice between mastering the fundamentals and using technology for higher level skills. You could make sure people understand what's what before you move to more involved subjects.

The problem probably is the pressure on the educational system, causing them to take shortcuts or drop the ball. The result is people who grasp the basics, but haven't learnt to take advantage of modern advancements or people who can do fancy tricks without knowing what's underneath them.

[CNe7532294]

This is not surprising at all and has been around for 4 years or more.

https://kotaku.com/chinese-test-cheating-tools-look-like-something-out-of-1587970164

Consequently, I was taking some certification (for ASCP) and higher college exams (GRE, MCAT and PCAT) at the time for pearson testing and they make it clear to not only empty your pockets and turn around but remove your glasses for inspection.

Even as far back as college for entrance exams (~12 years ago) they did this. Literally nothing new to them. They have an edge over cheaters. 

[rsjsouza]

At a certain point in my life I would have agreed with you, but in recent years I have seen so many people completely illiterate in the most fundamental math operations done in day-to-day activities (splitting checks, calculating sales tax, etc.) that I really think the electronic crutch does not bring any advantages other than a high level of dependency. Also, after I had kids I observed how important several fundamental mental gymnastics help further the development in other areas such as logic, methodical approach, etc.

It's a bit of a false dilemma. There is no choice between mastering the fundamentals and using technology for higher level skills. You could make sure people understand what's what before you move to more involved subjects.

The problem probably is the pressure on the educational system, causing them to take shortcuts or drop the ball. The result is people who grasp the basics, but haven't learnt to take advantage of modern advancements or people who can do fancy tricks without knowing what's underneath them.

And in my experience, the use of calculators since very early stages of formal education contributes enormously to that.

[Bassman59]

Yea its costly but i dont want no hd cameras and signals intelligence personel in a god damn class room. Thats insane jack booted gestapo thug shit. Having those shitty security cameras was unnerving enough.

Imagine getting harassed because an antenna picked up some spur. Leave that for freaking high security nuclear army bases.

Oh, it's worse than you can imagine.

[Mr. Scram]

Oh, it's worse than you can imagine.

I gather you have a subscription.

[aargee]

Slide Rules I say!

[Cyberdragon]

Hah, no need to spend money. Just do like in classrooms in Brazil: no calculators allowed. Period.

(yeah, I understand the lobby and culture of using calculators in basic/elementary schools here, but things can be changed. Besides, doing mental calculations is really good for the Brain.  )

What's the point teaching people outdated skills that are trivially automated, robbing higher level skills of their time in the classroom? That way it doesn't even matter whether you cheated or not.

Education already has the problem of not being in touch with what's asked in the real world. Besides, people who want to cheat will find ways to do so even if you banned everything.

Yes, there are things like bathroom break cheaters who write on the toilet paper and stuff. You could write in lemon juice on something and breath on it. Even if they weren't allowed electronics, there'll soon be people with discreat Google glass style things in their sunglasses. Or maybe even E-ink displays in their shirts. If people want to go to James Bond levels to cheat they will. Faraday caging the room and adding survailance would help, but if people want to use they're smarts for cheating instead of learning than so be it. Some places even change the toilet paper and paper towels (if no air dryers) before bathroom breaks.

[nidlaX]

Anyways, I feel like exam rooms need to be equipped with high resolution surveillance cameras and cheap SDRs monitoring all wireless channels in the future to thwart the new wave of cheaters. These devices will probably eventually be built and sold very cheaply, and there's little legal recourse against them.

The Chinese way which we did many years ago is to put a jammer in every room. No cellphone reception in exam rooms, no WiFi in exam rooms, and also there are local radio enforcement vans patrolling along exam centers.

I'm not surprised, but that wouldn't fly here, and jamming reception poses a safety risk in case of emergency situations.

[Brumby]

How about Faraday cage examination rooms.

[Mr. Scram]

There seems to be this implicit assumption in this thread that cheating didn't exist before electronics in the classroom were commonplace.

[Brumby]

There seems to be this implicit assumption in this thread that cheating didn't exist before electronics in the classroom were commonplace.

I don't see that.

Cheating has always been around and measures to defeat it have been around just about as long.  The only variant is the means and methods that have developed and the responses to those efforts.

This is just another entry in a long line of cheating ideas.

[Brumby]

I sometimes muse over the efforts some people go to in order to find a "short cut".  Several times I have observed that doing the job using the traditional method would have resulted in a job being done quicker, with less stress and/or better.

Some people work at being lazy with phenomenal industry - and I sometimes wonder if cheating falls into that category.

[Mr. Scram]

I sometimes muse over the efforts some people go to in order to find a "short cut".  Several times I have observed that doing the job using the traditional method would have resulted in a job being done quicker, with less stress and/or better.

Some people work at being lazy with phenomenal industry - and I sometimes wonder if cheating falls into that category.

Some ingenious bankrobbers would fit that description. With the skills displayed they should easily find a proper and decent paying job. Then again, we know that a fair few aren't just in it for the monetary rewards.