Google Earth Gets Actual Cars and People Real Time Tracking

Google Earth Gets Actual Cars and People Real Time Tracking

gizmodo.com

This is one of the awesomestest and scariestest technology demonstrations I've seen in a long while: Georgia Institute of Technology's students are using CCTV video to map actual vehicles and people into Google Earth. Why is this scary?

Right now, all the data displayed is anonymous, which makes up for a cool looking technology. You can see a football game in real time, the actual traffic in your route to work, and eventually see weather and even birds move in real time.

(visit the link for the full news article)

"Imagine that someone is able to tag someone in some way. In theory, it could be as easy as having access to one of the CCTV cameras and this system. You mark a car on the screen and, provided that you have enough cameras along the way, the technology would be able to follow the vehicle wherever it goes. In England, for example, this will be really easy to do, knowing there are CCTV cameras absolutely everywhere. Not to talk about RFID tags."


Not really sure what to make of this but it is obviously based on incredible technology !

Can Big Brother really get any more scary ?

gizmodo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Ir0nM0nkey


Cool! It does sound extremely interesting.. still makes me wonder why its apparently so difficult to catch people evading the law.

I suppose it doesn't matter if you're tagged on there unless there's a reason you don't want people knowing where you are.

Me personally, I don't care in the slightest, very interesting piece of kit though, surely if this was made available in the mainstream - on the flip side people could use it to locate police in the local area, could be a useful side to the this addition for us after all!

Scary indeed. Exciting also though, I look forward to playing with it if/when Google creates an easy web-based version for us normal folk. I wouldn't be surprised if in less than 5 years we are all doing this from our desktops and mobile phones, watching ourselves in 3rd person..

I'm sure it will happen given enough time, people are already attacking the Google mapping trucks. As technology progresses it's going to be harder and harder to do things secretively.

What scares me is that this technology is run by people who say things like:

awesomestest and scariestest

*sigh* I can hardly read anything written these days, run on sentences, sentence fragments, typos, statements that don't make any sense. And people wonder why my library consists of books from the 1960s or earlier, back when they had proof readers and "Editor" meant you read the whole things and edited it for clarity.

You can really see the degradation of intelligence if you compare books from the mid 1800s onwards, hell, even the 1980s was slightly better than today.

(sorry, mini rant. I just can't stand it)

Originally posted by Shadowflux
I'm sure it will happen given enough time, people are already attacking the Google mapping trucks. As technology progresses it's going to be harder and harder to do things secretively.

What scares me is that this technology is run by people who say things like:

awesomestest and scariestest

*sigh* I can hardly read anything written these days, run on sentences, sentence fragments, typos, statements that don't make any sense. And people wonder why my library consists of books from the 1960s or earlier, back when they had proof readers and "Editor" meant you read the whole things and edited it for clarity.

You can really see the degradation of intelligence if you compare books from the mid 1800s onwards, hell, even the 1980s was slightly better than today.

(sorry, mini rant. I just can't stand it)

Well, I'm sure that person doesn't use that phrase in a serious way, it was meant as a light hearted phrase. To me it seems like you are humorless and dry. Words change, people change, life is constantly changing. Don't let it pass you by while you sit and get angry.

Now all can follow Osama Bin Laden on their PC

how nice.. the governemnt can spy on us, and now we can spy on eachother* what sick perveerted minds technology brings forth*
is this implimented yet on google earth? or os t in the making still?

Did anyone watch the video?

The actual people and vehicles are digitally animated and look generic, so while Google might have the ability to track individuals, everyone else will just see digitized images of the activity.

Google's advances in technology are scary to me as well as their seeming interest in owning all the internet content they can get their hands on.

In this case, however, CCTV is everywhere, in many cases owned by the private sector.

These new features are an extension of the already useful Google Maps, plus they use technology to protect individual anonymity.

Notice that the technology is called: Augmenting Aerial Earth Maps with Dynamic Information. In many cases, the animated images are extrapolated from in an observed area to areas that are unobserved.





[edit on 2009/9/30 by GradyPhilpott]

I like it and don't fear it. There will always be scary people who abuse technology, but on the bright side there are so many good uses.

Yes, I suppose the POLICE could track criminals, but then the criminals can also track the police - the balance.

I'll look forward to the next step. When there's enough live cameras everywhere and I can just go on a virtual vacation without getting out of bed.

Whoa i was just thinking about this. There's someone outside my house surveying the land, and i thought of how strange it is to look at my house on google street view. Then i thought the next logical step was for it to be a live feed. Creepy, but it's all in how's its used, can be for good or for bad, mostly likely used for bad though.

I don't think you'll be seeing any live satellite images on the internet in the near future.

Live Satellite Images in Google Earth!

Posted by James Turnbull, Sunday, 1st April 2007
******SKIP******
Please note that this entry is an April Fool’s Joke – there are no live images to be seen!

Not sure, but this seems to be a "copy cat" of an April Fool's joke done a couple years ago.

And also, straight from the horses mouth, ...

Google Earth

Many of you have questions regarding the age and clarity of imagery in Google Earth. The information below should answer most, if not all, of these questions:

We acquire the best imagery available from our data providers to display in Google Earth. The areas of high resolution coverage are, on average, one to three years old. This imagery is also collected over time and is not "real time" in nature. This means that the experience of Google Earth like staring at an interactive photograph, rather than watching a security camera.

[edit on 9/30/2009 by Keyhole]

reply to post by Keyhole


If you watch the video, you will see that they explain what Google Maps is today and what it could become based on the data in the paper that is discussed in the video.

This work is carried out by the Georgia Institute of Technology's students, not Google.

Of course, one can imagine that Google would be interested in such technology.

The video is very interesting. You should watch it.

Hadn't watched the video before, have now though!

So, all they are actually doing is adding digitalized or "computer generated" traffic, people, clouds, etc., to the Google Earth images!

Wouldn't exactly call that "Actual Cars and Real Time Tracking" like the title to the article states.

[edit on 9/30/2009 by Keyhole]