# Argus 1.8 Billion Pixels



## distant.star (Jan 27, 2013)

.
From the "I'm glad I'm too old to look forward to this kind of world" department:

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/nova_the_next_generation_of_drone_surveillance_20130126/

The fear mongers of our world are developing a surveillance camera for drones they are calling the "Wide Area Persistent Stare" that can watch and record everything that happens in a small city.

"This is done by stitching together streams captured by a curved mosaic of 368 lens chips into one fluid video. Standing at a monitor, an operator can zoom in on specific areas anywhere within the image, opening up to 65 windows that contain magnified views while maintaining the larger context.

"From an altitude of 17,500 feet, Argus can see an object 6 inches off the ground, and automatically identifies everything that moves. Its recordings can be stored at a capacity equivalent to 5,000 hours of high-definition footage and are instantly retrievable at every level of magnification."

I'll bet when this comes about someone makes a small fortune selling hats with big mirrors on top.

Recently, I found out how much we are already being watched. A man killed a woman inside her house in Philadelphia. Cops gathered all the records from all video "security" cameras in the neighborhood. They zeroed in on one man they saw on the street, did some enhancement on his face and compared that image to the state driver license records to identify him. He confessed after 10 or so hours of persistent interrogation. Glad they caught him, but that kind of power scares me just as much as any criminal does.


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## DLitterio (Jan 27, 2013)

Bringing the big guns to the megapixel war. Canon vs. Nikon. Aaaaand here comes Argus.


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## Quasimodo (Jan 27, 2013)

Apropos, or malapropos... Has anyone tried the Giga-pan Pro! Looks cool. There was a rulling in Norway that (the photo was of a footbal match) that you cannot post these pictures (with people in them). This because the immense amount of MP that a person sitting on the far end of the field can be zoomed in on, thus being characterized as a portrait and illegal to post on the web without explicit permission. 

Issues of privacy are both important and pertinent with the rapid increase of image technology, imho.


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## gkaefer (Jan 27, 2013)

> "From an altitude of 17,500 feet, Argus can see an object 6 inches off the ground(...)"


8) lol - what performance...

my 300€ 400mm lens also can see a Boing from 17,500 feet distance... and it must not be 6 inches off the ground it can stand on ground too ;D

Georg


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## Don Haines (Jan 29, 2013)

distant.star said:


> I'll bet when this comes about someone makes a small fortune selling hats with big mirrors on top.



when aluminum foil hats just don't cut it any more...


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## Menace (Feb 11, 2013)

Don Haines said:


> distant.star said:
> 
> 
> > I'll bet when this comes about someone makes a small fortune selling hats with big mirrors on top.
> ...



My aluminum foil hat works perfectly fine


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## Pyrenees (Feb 11, 2013)

Impressive indeed, but conversely very, very scary should it fall into the 'wrong' hands.


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## Rienzphotoz (Feb 11, 2013)

Impressive indeed.
But the 6 inches off the ground part made me chuckle ... I was picturing a guy trying to satisfy himself with "his 6 inches off the ground" ;D and the darned Argus captures the entire performance ... Scary indeed!


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## Quasimodo (Feb 11, 2013)

Did you guys happen to see that Sports Illustrated Giga Pan picture from the Superbowl?

Scary...


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/news/20130204/super-bowl-xlvii-gigapan/#


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## Don Haines (Feb 11, 2013)

Quasimodo said:


> Did you guys happen to see that Sports Illustrated Giga Pan picture from the Superbowl?
> 
> Scary...
> 
> ...


I think that there ar about 50,000 release forms that need to be filled out, like the lady with the purple hair who was picking her nose....


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## Quasimodo (Feb 11, 2013)

Don Haines said:


> Quasimodo said:
> 
> 
> > Did you guys happen to see that Sports Illustrated Giga Pan picture from the Superbowl?
> ...



LOL, and as I pointed out in the earlier entry here, in Norway this type of picture was actually stopped by the government. I think it raises important privacy issues. I would have liked to have a Giga Pro Pan, but for landscape.


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