http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/89255-image/Nokia-Lumia-1020-official-samples-from-the-41-megapixel-camera.jpg
Posted on 07/06/2015 11:47:57 AM PDT by driftdiver
A SMALL private firm in the US has developed a surveillance system of Orwellian proportions that could very well be the future of big brother.
Thirty kilometres above a chosen city, a plane hangs out of sight of the thousands of people scurrying below — continuously circling the metropolis underneath. Every second, the plane takes a photo of the entire city and all the happenings within a 64sq km radius. The images are beamed down to a control centre where they create what is akin to a real-time Google map of everything taking place.
When a crime occurs, teams of analysts simply scroll back in time to the scene of the incident and identify those involved. From that point, they can follow the target by clicking forward through the images to the present moment and pinpoint their location.
Ostensibly, surveillance is about preventing and prosecuting crimes — and while it’s only been used in a handful of cities, Persistent Surveillance Systems (PSS) are designed to do just that.
The times it has been used on US soil, the tool has allowed authorities to solve crimes in a matter of minutes.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
They don’t really make supercomputers anymore. The computing power is easily available.
It would also be above the clouds and limited. To me the picture looks like it was taken at about 12k to 15k feet.
Satellites are expensive and relatively inflexible. I have no doubt they are using planes and drones for this.
If it saves one child ....
Its not like they don’t know who the most likely suspects are in the first place.
As the UK has found out, there are far fewer humans available to follow up on what the All Seeing Eye of Sauron records. Also such systems have their own vulnerabilities. Airborne systems are dependent upon atmospheric conditions. It doesn’t take too much in the way of haze or clouds to drastically cut their image quality down.
If your photograph has been taken with a digital camera by the government ( driver’s license, passport, military or other ID), your visage has been defined by thousands of distinct digital points or bytes. The day will soon come that as you are photographed knowingly and unknowingly as you go about your daily business, (banks, ATM machines, surveillance cameras), it will be very easy for an interested party in government to identify where you have been and possibly where you are. A supercomputer with the right search program will quickly find you.
_____________
That time is now
I can predict drone wars in the skies over any given city.
I'd truly be shocked to discover proof that it hasn't happened already.
So much for home of the free.
“Every second, the plane takes a photo of the entire city and all the happenings within a 64sq km radius.”
I’m real sceptical of that claim. To capture a single snapshot of useful resolution over that size area would require terrabytes of information. To do it every second, not to mention downloading in real time? Not bloody likely. Even microwaves would not enough bandwidth.
A single photo at high enough resolution would do it. 64 sql km is a square 8x8 km or roughly 5 miles by 5 miles. The technology to do this has existed for quite a while.
Heck there are smartphones now with 41 megapixel resolution.
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/89255-image/Nokia-Lumia-1020-official-samples-from-the-41-megapixel-camera.jpg
That picture is impressive for a smartphone, to be sure. That’s only a few city blocks though. Twenty-five square miles is a LOT of area to photograph by comparison.
However, I’m still sceptical. The article said the airplane would fly at 30 kilometers altitude, that’s over 15 miles high. It would require tremendous resolution to correctly identify and accurately track a car any for distance, through traffic and particularly overhead obstacles, such as buildings, shadows, trees, overpasses, etc. Forget trying to track pedestrians from that height. Maybe on a barren desert, but not in a city.
We’ve been doing this since the 60s. Down to the resolution of a dime.
The only thing new here is its in civilian hands and supposedly based on a small airplane. I agree the 30km altitude seems bogus. Some of the drones fly that high. More likely its simply wrong or a lie.
Its simply a matter of resolution, data storage and bandwidth.
“Its simply a matter of resolution, data storage and bandwidth.”
Exactly.
Not at that altitude, which is the point many of us are making.
The altitude is probably intentionally wrong. I think you’d be surprised at the technology that currently exists. Click on the link to the picture I posted. You can zoom in on the pic and clearly see car windows. That picture was taken with a cheap cell phone camera.
I would not be surprised. This tech gets more efficient and powerful each week.
My point is the bs re the altitude.
Was it an intentional mistake or due to sloppy reporting?
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