Satellite images bring surveillance to the home
By MIKE BERMAN
Scripps Howard News Service
April 16, 2003

If you've been glued to your TV set watching the invasion - and eventual collapse - of Iraq, you've seen satellite photos showing a bird's-eye view of the country and areas captured by coalition forces. What you may not know is these same images are available to all of us (for a fee) using software from Keyhole Inc.

EarthViewer3D PRO ($599 for a year's subscription) provides the geek in all of us access to an endless library of satellite photos that is constantly updated, giving us, as they say on their Web site, a "new perspective on world events."

Obviously the practicality of being able to bring up these images eludes most of us, but there is that inner geek that says "I've gotta have it!" that constantly pushes us to want to have access to these photos, even it is only to view our home towns from outer space.

Getting there is easy, all you need is a 200 megahertz Pentium II, 256 megabytes of RAM, a CD-ROM drive and a connection to the Internet. Then get ready for an afternoon of zooming and panning as you traverse the globe from the stratosphere.

Now, before you start inundating me with emails chastising me for promoting something that is obviously an expensive geek toy, EarthViewer does offer some valuable tools. For instance, the Keyhole Web site tells us:

• Engineers have the ability to visualize geospatial data to project planning and marketing.
• Real estate professionals can analyze and measure sites, print and email aerial images and virtually fly clients to locations for marketing impact.
• Government administrators and planners can integrate data with the satellite maps to get a new perspective on everything from zoning issues to military operations.
• Teachers and parents can engage children with a new perspective on geography and historical events.
• Mountain bikers, RVers and recreational aviators can map out their latest adventures.
• Drivers can figure out the best route from Point A to Point B and see if there's parking at Point B.
• Vacationers can check out that condo to see if it really is on the beach.

Keyhole offers other versions of the product including EarthViewer 3D NVIDIA ($49.95 for a year's subscription), for those that have NVIDIA graphics cards in their computers; EarthViewer HTML, which enables you to give visitors to your Web site access to Keyhole's satellite images; and EarthViewer PDA, for wireless access to the photos.

More information, including more details on its professional applications, can be found on the company's web site at www.earthviewer.com.

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