While adding video makes this a great competitor for Google Earth, it's the relatively brief time delay for the streamed footage that is most impressive and stands to blow its predecessor out of the water (if it works).The bonus is it will eventually catch every city from multiple angles, meaning it can generate a 3D model somewhere down the line. Another bonus, users can search for their address to find out when the camera will next be capturing it (cue lots of flash mob PR stunts hitting a YouTube channel near you).
"The cameras record the imagery, then it basically gets stored on a hard drive on the International Space Station,Speed-camera take $1.5 million, and then at various points during the day the hard drive will send the data down to Earth," says Larson. "So depending on where you are and depending on the orbit and all kinds of things, the delay between when you get imaged and when the data gets sent down might be anywhere between half an hour up to a few hours. So it's not live but it's certainly just a bit of a tape delay."
Unlike comprehensive Google Earth, however, Urthecast is limited in picking up only what the ISS has in its view at any one time as it orbits the Earth (since it does this 16 times in one day, however, there will be plenty of opportunity for you to catch your favourite coordinates from the right angle). It means that, although there will be a constant stream of new data, some areas of the Earth won't get an update for, potentially, weeks.
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