Yes Google does purchase 3rd party sat imagery, but I'm fairly certain that at one time Google owned a fair chunk of DigiGlobe. They were/are one of their largest customers.
Agreed, presently live satellite feeds are only in the realm of the NSA, but in the future there will be live, high resolution photogrammetry. If I had to guess it would be within the next 20 years or so.
Well I had this correct (that Google was headed towards live sat info) but my time horizon was off. This is what the WSJ had to say about Skybox Imaging (the company Google just purchased for $500M):
"For 1/38th the price of WhatsApp, Google acquired Skybox Imaging, which puts satellites into orbit 185 miles above Earth on the tip of the same Russian missiles that once threatened the U.S. with nuclear destruction. And here's what Skybox could allow Google to accomplish: Within a couple of years, when you want to know whether you left your porch light on or if your teenager borrowed the car you forbade her to drive, you might check Google Maps.
That's because by 2016 or so, Skybox will be able to take full images of the Earth twice a day, at a resolution that until last week was illegal to sell commercially—all with just a half-dozen satellites. By the time its entire fleet of 24 satellites has launched in 2018, Skybox will be imaging the entire Earth at a resolution sufficient to capture, for example, real-time video of cars driving down the highway. And it will be doing it three times a day."
AND apparently the Commerce department has just increased allowable sat resolution for commercial sale to a resolution of 0.25 metres.
Well I had this correct (that Google was headed towards live sat info) but my time horizon was off. This is what the WSJ had to say about Skybox Imaging (the company Google just purchased for $500M):
<p style="border:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);margin-bottom:1em;vertical-align:baseline;">"For 1/38th the price of WhatsApp, Google acquired Skybox Imaging, which puts satellites into orbit 185 miles above Earth on the tip of the same Russian missiles that once threatened the U.S. with nuclear destruction. And here's what Skybox could allow Google to accomplish: Within a couple of years, when you want to know whether you left your porch light on or if your teenager borrowed the car you forbade her to drive, you might check Google Maps.</p>
<p style="border:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);margin-bottom:1em;vertical-align:baseline;">That's because by 2016 or so, Skybox will be able to take full images of the Earth twice a day, at a resolution that until last week was illegal to sell commercially—all with just a half-dozen satellites. By the time its entire fleet of 24 satellites has launched in 2018, Skybox will be imaging the entire Earth at a resolution sufficient to capture, for example, real-time video of cars driving down the highway. And it will be doing it three times a day."</p>
<p style="border:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);margin-bottom:1em;vertical-align:baseline;">AND apparently the Commerce department has just increased allowable sat resolution for commercial sale to a resolution of 0.25 metres.</p>
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Here's a citation, http://tech-beta.slashdot.org/story/14/02/12/219243/google-earths-new-satellites
Yes Google does purchase 3rd party sat imagery, but I'm fairly certain that at one time Google owned a fair chunk of DigiGlobe. They were/are one of their largest customers.
Agreed, presently live satellite feeds are only in the realm of the NSA, but in the future there will be live, high resolution photogrammetry. If I had to guess it would be within the next 20 years or so.
Well I had this correct (that Google was headed towards live sat info) but my time horizon was off. This is what the WSJ had to say about Skybox Imaging (the company Google just purchased for $500M):
"For 1/38th the price of WhatsApp, Google acquired Skybox Imaging, which puts satellites into orbit 185 miles above Earth on the tip of the same Russian missiles that once threatened the U.S. with nuclear destruction. And here's what Skybox could allow Google to accomplish: Within a couple of years, when you want to know whether you left your porch light on or if your teenager borrowed the car you forbade her to drive, you might check Google Maps.
That's because by 2016 or so, Skybox will be able to take full images of the Earth twice a day, at a resolution that until last week was illegal to sell commercially—all with just a half-dozen satellites. By the time its entire fleet of 24 satellites has launched in 2018, Skybox will be imaging the entire Earth at a resolution sufficient to capture, for example, real-time video of cars driving down the highway. And it will be doing it three times a day."
AND apparently the Commerce department has just increased allowable sat resolution for commercial sale to a resolution of 0.25 metres.
Awesome. Get Creepy Eric, where will we be able to move now?
Underground, of course!