APPLE and GOOGLE using military-grade cameras to take powerful images ?

Resolution of a space camera.

Did the calculations in another thread a little while back.

You want to read, from space, the plate on a car. Lets assume then, that you need a resolution of about 5mm, from a distance of 350km.
Thats 8.185 x 10-7 degrees.
or 0.0029466 arcseconds.

( Calculations shown at that other link )

is a space telescope with a diameter of 42 meters.
Do you know of any?
They'd be VERY easy to see from the ground at night.
By comparison, the Hubble telescope is only 2.4 meters.
You'd be talking about a space telescope with a mirror half the size of the ISS.
Doesnt exist.

reply to post by alfa1

I don't think you'd need quite 0.2 inch resolution. I figure it a bit differently.
The figures on a license plate are about three inches (7.62cm) tall so in order to read those figures you would need a resolution of about 2 cm (3/4 inch) if you were going to be able to see anything but a featureless block for each figure.

The lowest practical orbit is at around 200km. Any lower than that and things tend to fall down pretty soon after being launched. Using the Rayleigh Criterion formula we find that in order to get 2cm resolution from 200km you would need to have a telescope mirror with a diameter of about 6 meters. To have a reasonable field of view you would need a focal length of something like 20 meters. Still, as you say, We are talking about a very, very large satellite just to house the telescope (ignoring the camera itself and all the electronics). This is a 6 meter telescope.



There are other considerations as well. That 200km is directly overhead so unless the license plate were flat on the ground you have a problem. Add the problem of atmospheric distortion of the image and it just isn't practical.

Originally posted by alphabetaone

Originally posted by wmd_2008

Its well known that the public don't get to see better than 50cm per pixel pictures of Earth as for seeing the age old number plate/ newspaper headline from a satellite that's physics, worked out the mirror size yet

Did I somehow not make myself clear? I'm not talking about (for now the 3rd time) what the public has the ability to see or can possibly see. I understand that....what I'm talking about is the unknown of what CAN be possible, not what is given to the public.

Telling you for about the 3rd time as well, there are PHYSICAL limits to resolution due to size and distance if what you think could be done from space there would be no need for drones with cameras

If you look at how long people have claimed that a for example car number plate could be read from a satellite thats MANY years now, but if you do the maths it wont happen.

The problem I think is people with NO understanding of photography or imaging see films like Enemy Of The State and some of the BS shown on tv shows like CSI , think they are true and use the old assumption the Military must have far better than that.

Also on here MANY members seem to think all the best science comes from the military, NO try universities thats were most of it comes from.

Originally posted by wmd_2008


The problem I think is people with NO understanding of photography or imaging see films like Enemy Of The State and some of the BS shown on tv shows like CSI ,

I agree with this more than you know lol

Originally posted by wmd_2008
think they are true and use the old assumption the Military must have far better than that.

Also on here MANY members seem to think all the best science comes from the military, NO try universities thats were most of it comes from.

Yes, I agree also. I don't think the Military instinctively or proactively has better, they just tend to exploit that which the Universities have already developed for research (and sometimes nefarious intent on people within the Universities to sell the technology to the military).

Trust me, I DO have a basic understanding of current photographic technology. My assumption is in the realm of developing technology not yet understood or conforming to the conventional wisdom.

You are wrong in some respects though as the Military (at least here in the US) tends to have technology light years ahead of what is available to the general public, whether or not they admit to it. I'm quite sure if they had an imaging system that does NOT conform to what is publicly understood about photography, they certainly wouldn't make it Google'able.

reply to post by alphabetaone


So what technology do you think they have because they use a large reflecting telescope for the lens and because of that they are restricted to the resolution limits of physical size which then dictates the type of orbit height it will have.

That's why I made the comment re tv and films and what is shown on the likes if CSI.

I don't know if you have seen the giga pixel picture threads on here, you can guarantee when someone posts a link to one of these giga pixel pictures on the net you will get posts that will say this is the camera tech that NASA and the military have until its pointed out that these pictures are done using a digital sir and a fancy remote tripod.

People make assumptions on what they think the military should have that doesn't mean they do!

I'm going to Hire a Plane! and with a Camera in Hand FLY over everyone's backyard and take photos and beat crAPPLE and GOOGLE to it!...lol

Now a US Senator has stepped in and asked Google and Apply about the "spying."

U.S. Sen. Schumer Asks Google And Apple About Their “Spy Planes” – Afraid They’ll Catch Sunbathers

Specifically, Schumer is asking the two companies for three security and privacy provisions:
- Provide notification to communities as to when you plan to conduct mapping
- Automatically blur photos of individuals who are captured, and give property owners the right to opt-out of having the company map their homes
- Put protocols in place with law enforcement and local municipalities to ensure that sensitive infrastructure details are blurred from published maps

I could be cynical and say how typical it is that our government reserves the rights to do all the spying and trample our rights, but a part of me actually applauds someone in Washington for raising the issue.

had google street view car drive past me 3 times in different places last week... got some serious cameras on it... a sphere maybe double size of a football with about 12 lens on it maybe more... "hiiiii google"