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>> a) These areas are restricted airspace, and most of the aerial imagery Google et al buy is taken from airplanes. Just replying to point out that this is tru

>> a) These areas are restricted airspace, and most of the aerial imagery Google et al buy is taken from airplanes. Just replying to point out that this is true. I worked 3 summers for "Aerometric", a company that does exactly this. We flew flight lines from 10-20 thousand feet with a huge camera rig. Those photos were transmitted back to corporate, where they are stitched back together to form large high-resolution aerial maps. Our customers were usually timber companies, gas/oil companies, and occasionally FEMA. Until that job, I naively assumed everything was a satellite image with some Bond-like zoom capabilities.

madeuptempacct 8y ago
What's your career path?
- Skunkleton 8y ago
  It shoots upwards for about thirty minutes, followed by a feeling of just sort of gliding along for a while. Then it quickly comes back to the ground.
- mynewtb 8y ago
  Geospatial anything. Geomatics, GIS, geodesy, surveying, photogrammetry, optics, whatever is related.
- joshvm 8y ago
  Coming from a background in remote sensing, and having been to several conferences where companies desperately try to sell destitute students instrumentation worth hundreds of thousands of dollars... A lot of remote sensing folks come out of geography degrees into specialist Masters' programs. The use cases are all the various things you'd use high resolution aerial maps for. To be clear most of the scientists are users of this data, rather than the creators. Historically there were more computer vision scientists involved, but we've mostly solved the big problems like image stitching and camera calibration. Then GPS came along and solved the geo-referencing problem as well. Most academics just buy their data or get it from a space agency, do some analysis in GIS software and get on with answering their research questions. There is still a healthy research field in remote sensing, but fewer people worry about the collection side. There are also plenty of people involved from the space side of things, but again, unless you're on an instrument team you're a consumer not a creator. So the career path depends. Typically degree in geography with a specialism in remote sensing, then into a career with an appropriate company. Most of the airborne cameras are produced by large orgs like Leica Geosystems. Also look at Hexagon AB who have bought up just about everyone else. The people that generate this data tend to be small companies who own a plane (or three) kitted out with expensive surveying cameras. They are then contracted to fly over places and they provide calibrated (ortho-rectified, geo-referenced, etc) data to the client. Depending on the budget and requirements, this can include (multispectral) imagery and/or LIDAR mapping. If you're interested in camera development that spans the engineering gamut from electrical (sensors) to optical. There are also aeronautical engineers and of course pilots. Nowadays if you have some machine learning knowledge, you're probably useful.
- module0000 8y ago
  >> What's your career path? Programmer/sysadmin type, the aerial surveying was for fun in my 20's.
TeMPOraL 8y ago
> Until that job, I naively assumed everything was a satellite image with some Bond-like zoom capabilities. Google Maps really messed with people by calling their photo view "Satellite view". Myself, it took me couple of years to realize those couldn't possibly be satellite photos, and to learn that in fact most of them are aerial.

madeuptempacct 8y ago

What's your career path?

Skunkleton 8y ago
It shoots upwards for about thirty minutes, followed by a feeling of just sort of gliding along for a while. Then it quickly comes back to the ground.
mynewtb 8y ago
Geospatial anything. Geomatics, GIS, geodesy, surveying, photogrammetry, optics, whatever is related.
joshvm 8y ago
Coming from a background in remote sensing, and having been to several conferences where companies desperately try to sell destitute students instrumentation worth hundreds of thousands of dollars... A lot of remote sensing folks come out of geography degrees into specialist Masters' programs. The use cases are all the various things you'd use high resolution aerial maps for. To be clear most of the scientists are users of this data, rather than the creators. Historically there were more computer vision scientists involved, but we've mostly solved the big problems like image stitching and camera calibration. Then GPS came along and solved the geo-referencing problem as well. Most academics just buy their data or get it from a space agency, do some analysis in GIS software and get on with answering their research questions. There is still a healthy research field in remote sensing, but fewer people worry about the collection side. There are also plenty of people involved from the space side of things, but again, unless you're on an instrument team you're a consumer not a creator. So the career path depends. Typically degree in geography with a specialism in remote sensing, then into a career with an appropriate company. Most of the airborne cameras are produced by large orgs like Leica Geosystems. Also look at Hexagon AB who have bought up just about everyone else. The people that generate this data tend to be small companies who own a plane (or three) kitted out with expensive surveying cameras. They are then contracted to fly over places and they provide calibrated (ortho-rectified, geo-referenced, etc) data to the client. Depending on the budget and requirements, this can include (multispectral) imagery and/or LIDAR mapping. If you're interested in camera development that spans the engineering gamut from electrical (sensors) to optical. There are also aeronautical engineers and of course pilots. Nowadays if you have some machine learning knowledge, you're probably useful.
module0000 8y ago
>> What's your career path? Programmer/sysadmin type, the aerial surveying was for fun in my 20's.

TeMPOraL 8y ago

> Until that job, I naively assumed everything was a satellite image with some Bond-like zoom capabilities. Google Maps really messed with people by calling their photo view "Satellite view". Myself, it took me couple of years to realize those couldn't possibly be satellite photos, and to learn that in fact most of them are aerial.