Startup rents out satellites to enable businesses to glean data from space
Telecommunications
Skybox Imaging turns real-time images of the Earth's surface into useful data for businesses to gain a larger perspective of human activity.
The ArduSat has already opened up space exploration to the masses, offering anyone to book time and run their own programs on the mini satellites. Now Skybox Imaging wants to do the same for businesses, with the aim of turning real-time images of the Earth’s surface into useful data to gain a larger perspective of human activity.
According to Wired, only nine satellites currently sell high-resolution images commercially and typically only take one image of a given location per year. The key to SkyBox’s proposition is that the satellites it uses are cheaper and use technology that enables it to provide images and even video throughout the day, relaying them back to analysts. These images provide data on environmental changes and the progress of building works or housing construction, but also the tracking of delivery vehicles and consumer behavior in retail parking lots, for example. Skybox received permission to launch its first satellite in May and hopes to start sending back its first images once in place.
Given not all startups have the means to launch into space, are there other ways that media can be gathered to give businesses greater insight into consumer behavior?
Spotted by: Murray Orange
13th August 2013
Email: info@skyboximaging.com
Website: www.skyboximaging.com
