PARIS: Get ready for the ultimate reality show: It’s the whole world, all the time, in high definition and in colour.
UrtheCast Corp., a Vancouver-based company that has staked out the high ground – literally – in its bid to open up the Earth observation industry, says it is ready to switch on a continuous video feed of the planet from the International Space Station. The feed will be available to anyone with an Internet connection.
Urthecast operates two cameras that cosmonauts installed on the Russian portion of the space station in December, 2013. One camera captures still photos and one streams 8K ultra-high-definition video, a format with about 16 times the picture quality of conventional high-definition television. It can spot objects as small as one metre across and can track and keep a particular location in frame for up to three minutes.
“We’re excited to see what people will do with it,” said Scott Larson, the company’s CEO. Once the service is running, it will be possible for users to plan ahead along the station’s orbital path and book the camera to target and capture sites of interest, or even stage events that can be seen from space.
“Imagine your buddies in white shirts on a green field spelling out, ‘Will you marry me?’” Mr. Larson said. “People are going to be interacting with the space station when it is passing up above.”
The raw video will be streamed free of charge. Made-to-order requests and packaging of remote sensing data are where the company expects to turn a profit.
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