Skybox Imaging wants to provide real-time satellite images form earth and data analytics to build a Google-scale business.
Big Data companies scour the Internet and transaction records and other online sources to glean insight into consumer behavior and economic production around the world, an almost entirely untapped source of data—information that companies and governments sometimes try to keep secret—is hanging in the air right above us.
There are 1,000 satellites orbiting the planet at any given time, But only 12 send back hi-res images.
Of the 1,000 or more satellites orbiting the planet at any given time, there are perhaps 100 that send back visual data. Only 12 of those send back high-resolution pictures (defined as an image in which each pixel represents a square meter or less of ground), and only nine of the 12 sell into the commercial space-based imaging market, currently estimated at $2.3 billion a year.
Even with six small satellites orbiting Earth, Skybox could provide practically real-time images of the same spot twice a day at a fraction of the current cost.
Plenty of people would want real-time access to that data—investors, environmentalists, activists, journalists—and no one currently has it, with the exception of certain nodes of the US government.
Skybox wants to go further than just providing real-time images. The company’s real payoff won’t be in the images Skybox sells. Instead, it will derive from the massive trove of unsold images that flow through its system every day—images that, when analyzed by computer vision or by low-paid humans, can be transmogrified into extremely useful, desirable, and valuable data. What kinds of data?
- The number of cars in the parking lot of every Walmart in America.
- The number of fuel tankers on the roads of the three fastest-growing economic zones in China.
- The size of the slag heaps outside the largest gold mines in southern Africa.
- The rate at which the wattage along key stretches of the Ganges River is growing brighter.
Continue reading:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/06/startup-skybox/
SkySat-1 in final testing at Skybox’s HQ
Skybox Imaging is an information and analytics company that provides easy access to reliable and frequent high-resolution imagery and first-ever HD video of the earth by combining the power of web technologies and a constellation of microsatellites. By operating the world’s first coordinated high-resolution imaging constellation, Skybox aims to empower commercial and government customers to make more informed, data-driven decisions that will improve the profitability of companies and the welfare of societies around the world.
Through a planned constellation of 24+ satellites that will capture high-resolution imagery and the first ever HD-video of any spot on earth, multiple times per day, Skybox will be able to take the pulse of the planet on a near real-time basis to provide an indispensable tool in addressing global challenges in areas including security, humanitarian efforts, and environmental monitoring.
Stanford Technology Venture Program
featuring Co-Founders of Skybox Imaging:
Dan Berkenstock (EVP and Chief Product Officer | Founder)
Julian Mann (Vice President, Product Development | Founder)
John Fenwick (Vice President, Flight Programs | Founder)
Ching-Yu Hu (Director of Marketing and Customer Relations | Founder)
http://www.skyboximaging.com/
