UrthCast is a developing a new technology that will allow people on Earth to see what astronauts see. The idea is similar to Google maps, but incorporates a “live” aspect that one would find in movies. By installing two video cameras onto the Russian portion of the International Space Staion, UrtheCast plans to provides an “Image of the Earth Scrolling by.” In a promotional UrtheCast video, Scott Larson says that “you’ll be able to fast forward, skip, pause and rewind.”
The first I heard of this project was when Director, Co-Founder, Executive Vice President, and Sauder School of Business graduate Wade Larson, came to speak in my first year commerce class. Personally, I think that the idea is excellent! Mr. Larson is a great speaker and is very passionate about his career, which made it enjoyable to listen to.
Urthecast hopes to connect people by way of Social media. The video feed will allow you to tag portions of it, so people can show where they were and which events they were at. All this close-proximity however, begs the question: how will this not be a confidentiality breach? It may only be a matter of time before people start getting concerned about how much UrtheCast exposes. Then again, most social media sites can be considered as confidentiality breaches. If this fact is overlooked, once people find out about Urthecast, I’m convinced it will become an app that they integrate into their everyday lives.
Categories: