5 ms·

How does this app work? I really don't see how it's possible.

navyrain 16y ago
ADS-B is an automatic broadcast of an airplane's position and velocity, intended for making management of the airspace easer, among other things. It is not encrypted, and you can set up the hardware to receive the signal with a modest amount of effort. There is apparently a website somewhere where these hobbyists are aggregating this data.
- lkjhjkedfgvb 16y ago
  Then this data must be encrypted. And since it would be an obvious security risk to allow bad guys (ie foreigners) to access this data then none US aircraft couldn't be allowed to fly in the same airspace as non-Us aircraft. So US aircraft couldn't be allowed to fly abroad and foreign aircraft couldn't be allowed in the US. Operation complete isolation (as the proposal is known) would greatly increase security.
  - regularfry 16y ago
    What's the threat model here?
    - candeira 16y ago
      Exactly, what's the threat model? If I were a terrorist with a ground-to-air missile, would it matter to me whether I blew up a specific plane or just the first Jumbo-class plane of $country's airline to take off? Would it matter to society at large whether a plane had been randomly or specifically targeted?
TGJ 16y ago
If I were to write a program on the spot to do this, I would integrate the video function with my program to isolate objects in the field of view, calculate relative size based on known data of airplanes which would give me distance to the object. I could then use that with my known elevation from GPS to calculate altitude. If I had to I would make the picture need a horizon and use some simple trigonometry to get altitude. I could then use some beautiful math to plot the general course of the airplane with a few samples of the objects motion in my camera's field of view. With all this data, I could cross it with scheduled flights from all airlines to get the rest of the data needed to get me the flight number and actual course. And that's off the top of my head. Don't really know how it works.
- DougWebb 16y ago
  Or... If you've seen the Google Skymap app, you know that it's possible to determine what part of the sky the phone is pointing at in addition to where the phone is located. That gives you a rectangular cone which contains everything the phone can 'see'. A little geometry and the flightpath data and you can figure out which flights are passing through the cone and how far away they are; the close ones are probably the ones the user is interested in.
  - TGJ 16y ago
    That sounds neat. I didn't now about the Skymap app. I've stopped browsing apps since my Iphone went through the washer. It goes to show that there are many ways to achieve the desired goal, so the real issue is not ADS-B systems but freedom vs. safety and how much are we will to give of one to get the other.

ADS-B is an automatic broadcast of an airplane's position and velocity, intended for making management of the airspace easer, among other things. It is not encrypted, and you can set up the hardware to receive the signal with a modest amount of effort. There is apparently a website somewhere where these hobbyists are aggregating this data.

lkjhjkedfgvb 16y ago
Then this data must be encrypted. And since it would be an obvious security risk to allow bad guys (ie foreigners) to access this data then none US aircraft couldn't be allowed to fly in the same airspace as non-Us aircraft. So US aircraft couldn't be allowed to fly abroad and foreign aircraft couldn't be allowed in the US. Operation complete isolation (as the proposal is known) would greatly increase security.
- regularfry 16y ago
  What's the threat model here?
  - candeira 16y ago
    Exactly, what's the threat model? If I were a terrorist with a ground-to-air missile, would it matter to me whether I blew up a specific plane or just the first Jumbo-class plane of $country's airline to take off? Would it matter to society at large whether a plane had been randomly or specifically targeted?

TGJ 16y ago

If I were to write a program on the spot to do this, I would integrate the video function with my program to isolate objects in the field of view, calculate relative size based on known data of airplanes which would give me distance to the object. I could then use that with my known elevation from GPS to calculate altitude. If I had to I would make the picture need a horizon and use some simple trigonometry to get altitude. I could then use some beautiful math to plot the general course of the airplane with a few samples of the objects motion in my camera's field of view. With all this data, I could cross it with scheduled flights from all airlines to get the rest of the data needed to get me the flight number and actual course. And that's off the top of my head. Don't really know how it works.

DougWebb 16y ago
Or... If you've seen the Google Skymap app, you know that it's possible to determine what part of the sky the phone is pointing at in addition to where the phone is located. That gives you a rectangular cone which contains everything the phone can 'see'. A little geometry and the flightpath data and you can figure out which flights are passing through the cone and how far away they are; the close ones are probably the ones the user is interested in.
- TGJ 16y ago
  That sounds neat. I didn't now about the Skymap app. I've stopped browsing apps since my Iphone went through the washer. It goes to show that there are many ways to achieve the desired goal, so the real issue is not ADS-B systems but freedom vs. safety and how much are we will to give of one to get the other.