Cola companies, game developers, and smartphone apps could soon all have access to ultra-high definition video taken from space—so detailed that you can watch cars go by and count them individually—thanks to a Canadian company.UrtheCast has been operating two cameras on the Russian segment of the International Space Station for the last year, and the company has just unveiled the results of Iris, the higher definition of the two. It's amazing to watch, but also just a tad unsettling in its extreme detail.
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UrtheCast has already struck a deal with Pepsi to use the former's video as part of the company's Pepsi Challenge campaign, and the company advertises their product as "Earth observation as a service."Iris takes ultra high-definition video, meaning that the image is just short of 4,000 pixels wide, and can capture 15 square kilometres of land in 60 second clips. It boasts 1-meter resolution, so while the camera can't pick out people, cars and other larger objects like boats can be seen clearly.UrtheCast isn't the only shutterbug sending high-def visuals down from space. NASA has its own 4K video camera on the ISS, but its wide-angle set up means it takes Hollywood-esque long takes of space, not hyper-detailed portraits of life down here on our big ball of dirt.On the commercial side of things, Google acquired its own ultra-high resolution space video arm in 2013 when it bought Skybox Imaging to improve its Maps service. Skybox's cameras provide a similar resolution to UrtheCast's, but they're fixed to satellites, not the space station, and only capture video in black and white.A commercial camera called the Worldview-3 capable of picking out objects just 10 inches in size is already hurtling through the void on a satellite. The company behind Worldview-3, DigitalGlobe, also plans on selling its images to various companies and government agencies. Worldview-3 takes still images, however, not video.With all this in mind, UrtheCast's Iris camera might just be the most capable eye in the sky for taking detailed colour video of life on Earth. And, with a spot for itself on the ISS, it has a prime observation point.