This would be particularly useful where a suspect's face is obscured by a "hoodie" or hat but a distinctive piece of clothing can be seen.

BBC: RELATED BBC SITES

When Brocious and I tested his hack at three New York hotels prior to his Black Hat presentation, his device was a messy two-piece contraption, with a circuit board wired to a separate battery pack, and it only worked on one of three rooms we tested.

FORBES: Hackers Crack Hotel Room Locks With A Tool Disguised As A Dry Erase Marker

In a presentation at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas on Thursday, Patton explained how a piece of free software he'd created can automatically comb social networking sites, collecting and aggregating data based on keywords or other information like contact information, friends, and personal history.

FORBES: Mining MySpace