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Satellite Images as Courtroom Evidence
Anonymous Coward writes "Mark Johnson, director of motion graphics for Visual Forensics, has been using data from Earth-imaging satellites for a special purpose: sticking it to the bad guys and keep the good guys out of trouble. Now Johnson's looking forward to the launch of the Ikonos imaging satellite later this week, which is capable of taking pictures that show clearly the name of a football team in the end zone." Johnson's fees for testifying on your behalf in court are apparently $25,000 and up. Not a cheap alibi!
Well, they give the example that the system was used to help the 'good guy' USAF pilot who killed a number of skiers by flying so low he cut the cable wires of the gondola. I'm so glad he got off.
The accident obviously had nothing to do with the fact the maps the USAF had were so old they didn't even show the ski lift.
All pilots suffer from many kinds of illusion and distortion. That's why they learn to trust their instruments and not their instincts. It may well have looked as though his plane was high above the mountain side, but that's not an excuse. "Sorry officer, I didn't know I was doing 50mph in an urban zone when I killed the school kids - with this new car it felt like 25 mph!". Yeah right, good excuse.
For those in the U.S. who may never have heard this story, people in Europe were deeply upset at the high handed way the US military handled this. They basically said "oh, whoops, sorry, accidents happen". Disgraceful, and using this dubious incident to promote the technology is a massive faux pas to anyone in Europe. The pilot should have been found guilty, and the US authorities should have been diciplined for having such outdated maps.
Rather like the maps of Belgrade....
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How can this possibly be useful? It would have to be pointed directly at whatever it wanted to photograph. Therefore, it would have to KNOW when someone is committing a crime in order to take a picture of the innocent person as proof. Also, 1 meter resolution? How are they going to be able to use that as proof? You could be mistaken for a large animal very easily. Also, back to the sattelite pointing at a precise moment, I think that would be more incriminating to have that picture taken (Hmmm...if this guy didn't know about the crime taking place at that exact same time, why did he have this made as proof he didnt at the exact same time?) that to not have it...
Another thing that bothers me, its called orbit. If this thing is in orbit, that means its only going to be over top of certain places at certain times of the day. Which means they'll need a lot of them to actually have coverage. This also bothered me in "Enemy of the State". It appeared they used the exact same sattelite every time....
If I'm wrong about the part above, would someone please politely correct me.
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"I'm not gonna say anything inspirational, I'm just gonna fucking swear a lot"
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