The spy in the sky that sees backwards in time
Use of wide-area motion imagery is spreading
THE WAR in Ukraine has brought the topic of eyes in the sky to general attention, as the Ukrainian army in particular has put surveillance by drone to good effect in identifying and destroying targets in the here and now. But aerial surveillance can also reach backwards in time, by the expedient of indiscriminately recording everything that is going on in a particular neighbourhood, and then looking for useful patterns in the resulting footage. This technique, called wide-area motion imagery (WAMI), has been around since 2006. But improvements in both the recording equipment used and the means by which the images are analysed are making it more and more valuable.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “The spies in the sky that see backwards in time”
From the May 7th 2022 edition
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