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Sony Developing Gigapixel Satellite Imaging

Posted by Zonk on from the hello-up-there dept.

holy_calamity writes "Sony and the University of Alabama are working on a gigapixel resolution camera for improved satellite surveillance. It can see 10-km-square from an altitude of 7.5 kilometres with a resolution better than 50 centimetres per pixel. As well as removing annoying artefacts created by tiling images in Google Earth and similar, it should allow CCTV surveillance of entire cities with one camera. 'The trick is to build an array of light sensitive chips that each record small parts of a larger image and place them at the focal plane of a large multiple-lens system. The camera would have gigapixel resolution, and able to record images at a rate of 4 frames per second. The team suggests that such a camera mounted on an aircraft could provide images of a large city by itself. This would even allow individual vehicles to be monitored without any danger of losing them as they move from one ground level CCTV system to another.'"

7 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. The real question is... by webmaster404 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Will it have a rootkit with it?

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  2. 7.5 km? by ogrizzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A satellite flying at 7.5 km of altitude sound quite bizarre to me.

    1. Re:7.5 km? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I believe that a satellite flying at an altitude of 7.5km is what's referred to as a "spectacular, flaming re-entry"

  3. granted, the article got the title wrong by everphilski · · Score: 4, Informative

    but the school is the University of Alabama in Huntsville. w00t!

  4. Of course, it's a Sony. by Tackhead · · Score: 4, Funny
    > Can we get them to stream images from the back yard patio where Jessica Alba is sunbathing nude???

    Of course we can.

    Just install this special Betatrac codec. Closed-source only.

    Oh, the Betatrac codec has to handshake with the chipset we use in Vaio line of lapops. Won't work on your Mac, Dell, or white-box PC, unless you buy our Betatrac Vaio USB device, which will permit you to move (and not copy!) one (and only one!) copy of the video to a Memory Stick.

  5. Re:Hmmmm by rk · · Score: 5, Funny

    "The real question here is: Can we get them to stream images from the back yard patio where Jessica Alba is sunbathing nude???"

    I probably shouldn't do this, but since you're so interested, here's a picture of Ms. Alba, catching some rays on a light blue blanket in her back yard, taken at 50 centimeters resolution.

  6. Re:Hmmmm by hsdpa · · Score: 5, Funny

    Think of the children!! How could you post such content here at slashdot ?

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