Google maps in 'real time'

[there4eyeM]

This cannot be an original idea; someone must be discussing this somewhere. That is to say, it is already a subject of sorts, but always in the context of explaining why it isn't happening/available.
What we would like to see on this thread is comments on, for example, how and when this will, finally, arrive. This takes for granted that this will happen through one technology or another someday.
whaduhyuhthink?

 

[SavannahMann]

This cannot be an original idea; someone must be discussing this somewhere. That is to say, it is already a subject of sorts, but always in the context of explaining why it isn't happening/available.
What we would like to see on this thread is comments on, for example, how and when this will, finally, arrive. This takes for granted that this will happen through one technology or another someday.
whaduhyuhthink?

You are not very knowledgeable about technology are you? I ask that because the someday will not be anytime soon for any tech like this. First, what would it take? We have Satellites and all that right? Except that there are not many with the type of resolution needed to see city streets much less what is going on with them. Most Commercial Satellites have a resolution greater than one meter. That means that they can’t see anything smaller than one meter square. That’s a pretty big target. As an example of what is available now, an airplane flying over and recording what is going on with a city, they can track someone from a crime scene, but that someone is literally just a dot. They are tracking a dot on a screen. About the size of one pixel, and that is from an aircraft circling overhead. Not a satellite in space.

When I was in the Army, and we would get lost, while we were studying the map to determine our location, we used to joke that someone should shake a tree and we could find ourselves by what was moving. That is what you are talking about doing.

The best spy Satellites in use right now can see a pack of cigarettes. But they have a very narrow field of view. They can swivel the cameras and see anything on the horizon, but not the entire horizon. So to have that sort of coverage over a nation would mean literally tens of thousands of Satellites in orbit just for this.

Now, if this was even proposed, the first people to object will be the cops. The cops pressured a social information sharing map program that allowed people to put where the speed traps were, and where the DUI checkpoints were. I know, I would go an update the damned thing on New Years and other holidays. The Cops pressured the people to shut down that service, because they claimed it was allowing criminal to escape the police. It didn’t work on where the cops were driving, it took time for the information to flow up and then back down. But it did allow people to avoid speed traps and DUI checkpoints, and that was an unacceptable risk to public safety or something.

Real time video would allow criminals to track the cops and avoid them, or ambush them. The cops would never stand for it.

So we have technical issues, and we have social justice issues. There is more, but now you know why it will never happen in our Law and Order society even if it was technically feasible, which it isn’t.

 

[there4eyeM]

This cannot be an original idea; someone must be discussing this somewhere. That is to say, it is already a subject of sorts, but always in the context of explaining why it isn't happening/available.
What we would like to see on this thread is comments on, for example, how and when this will, finally, arrive. This takes for granted that this will happen through one technology or another someday.
whaduhyuhthink?

You are not very knowledgeable about technology are you? I ask that because the someday will not be anytime soon for any tech like this. First, what would it take? We have Satellites and all that right? Except that there are not many with the type of resolution needed to see city streets much less what is going on with them. Most Commercial Satellites have a resolution greater than one meter. That means that they can’t see anything smaller than one meter square. That’s a pretty big target. As an example of what is available now, an airplane flying over and recording what is going on with a city, they can track someone from a crime scene, but that someone is literally just a dot. They are tracking a dot on a screen. About the size of one pixel, and that is from an aircraft circling overhead. Not a satellite in space.

When I was in the Army, and we would get lost, while we were studying the map to determine our location, we used to joke that someone should shake a tree and we could find ourselves by what was moving. That is what you are talking about doing.

The best spy Satellites in use right now can see a pack of cigarettes. But they have a very narrow field of view. They can swivel the cameras and see anything on the horizon, but not the entire horizon. So to have that sort of coverage over a nation would mean literally tens of thousands of Satellites in orbit just for this.

Now, if this was even proposed, the first people to object will be the cops. The cops pressured a social information sharing map program that allowed people to put where the speed traps were, and where the DUI checkpoints were. I know, I would go an update the damned thing on New Years and other holidays. The Cops pressured the people to shut down that service, because they claimed it was allowing criminal to escape the police. It didn’t work on where the cops were driving, it took time for the information to flow up and then back down. But it did allow people to avoid speed traps and DUI checkpoints, and that was an unacceptable risk to public safety or something.

Real time video would allow criminals to track the cops and avoid them, or ambush them. The cops would never stand for it.

So we have technical issues, and we have social justice issues. There is more, but now you know why it will never happen in our Law and Order society even if it was technically feasible, which it isn’t.

Drones.

 

[Asclepias]

This cannot be an original idea; someone must be discussing this somewhere. That is to say, it is already a subject of sorts, but always in the context of explaining why it isn't happening/available.
What we would like to see on this thread is comments on, for example, how and when this will, finally, arrive. This takes for granted that this will happen through one technology or another someday.
whaduhyuhthink?

Depends on what you are talking about. If just overhead maps thats one thing. If you mean street level thats an entirely different subject. Its going to take a lot for it to be "real time" even if its just overhead maps. There is always going to be some lag simply due to physical distance and transmission rates. If youre talking street level you can forget about it in our lifetime. Too much data to move and too many devices transmitting.

 

[there4eyeM]

This cannot be an original idea; someone must be discussing this somewhere. That is to say, it is already a subject of sorts, but always in the context of explaining why it isn't happening/available.
What we would like to see on this thread is comments on, for example, how and when this will, finally, arrive. This takes for granted that this will happen through one technology or another someday.
whaduhyuhthink?

Depends on what you are talking about. If just overhead maps thats one thing. If you mean street level thats an entirely different subject. Its going to take a lot for it to be "real time" even if its just overhead maps. There is always going to be some lag simply due to physical distance and transmission rates. If youre talking street level you can forget about it in our lifetime. Too much data to move and too many devices transmitting.

Just overhead enough to show presence of people and vehicles as it happened would be very interesting.

 

[Asclepias]

This cannot be an original idea; someone must be discussing this somewhere. That is to say, it is already a subject of sorts, but always in the context of explaining why it isn't happening/available.
What we would like to see on this thread is comments on, for example, how and when this will, finally, arrive. This takes for granted that this will happen through one technology or another someday.
whaduhyuhthink?

Depends on what you are talking about. If just overhead maps thats one thing. If you mean street level thats an entirely different subject. Its going to take a lot for it to be "real time" even if its just overhead maps. There is always going to be some lag simply due to physical distance and transmission rates. If youre talking street level you can forget about it in our lifetime. Too much data to move and too many devices transmitting.

Just overhead enough to show presence of people and vehicles as it happened would be very interesting.

Youre talking a dedicated real time stream for each device which is still asking for something thats pretty much impossible to scale to every user. Transmission time is the bottleneck.

 

[there4eyeM]

This cannot be an original idea; someone must be discussing this somewhere. That is to say, it is already a subject of sorts, but always in the context of explaining why it isn't happening/available.
What we would like to see on this thread is comments on, for example, how and when this will, finally, arrive. This takes for granted that this will happen through one technology or another someday.
whaduhyuhthink?

Depends on what you are talking about. If just overhead maps thats one thing. If you mean street level thats an entirely different subject. Its going to take a lot for it to be "real time" even if its just overhead maps. There is always going to be some lag simply due to physical distance and transmission rates. If youre talking street level you can forget about it in our lifetime. Too much data to move and too many devices transmitting.

Just overhead enough to show presence of people and vehicles as it happened would be very interesting.

Youre talking a dedicated real time stream for each device which is still asking for something thats pretty much impossible to scale to every user. Transmission time is the bottleneck.

Thanks for the observations and perspective. We know that such technological limits can disappear very quickly. If it can turn a coin on something today, it gets done.

 

[there4eyeM]

This cannot be an original idea; someone must be discussing this somewhere. That is to say, it is already a subject of sorts, but always in the context of explaining why it isn't happening/available.
What we would like to see on this thread is comments on, for example, how and when this will, finally, arrive. This takes for granted that this will happen through one technology or another someday.
whaduhyuhthink?

Depends on what you are talking about. If just overhead maps thats one thing. If you mean street level thats an entirely different subject. Its going to take a lot for it to be "real time" even if its just overhead maps. There is always going to be some lag simply due to physical distance and transmission rates. If youre talking street level you can forget about it in our lifetime. Too much data to move and too many devices transmitting.

Just overhead enough to show presence of people and vehicles as it happened would be very interesting.

Youre talking a dedicated real time stream for each device which is still asking for something thats pretty much impossible to scale to every user. Transmission time is the bottleneck.

Thanks for the observations and perspective. We know that such technological limits can disappear very quickly. If it can turn a coin on something today, it gets done.

We could imagine stacks of computer guided drones circulating above us providing Internet connections, pizza deliveries, traffic info and much else. Not necessarily 'good' or 'bad' (or beautiful), but imaginable, and perhaps probable.