http://defense.aol.com/2012/05/17/google-satellites-can-track-every-ship-at-sea-including-us-na/
Google Can Track Ships At Sea — Including US Navy; Detailed Maps Planned of Sea Bottom
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. and Colin Clark
Published: May 17, 2012106 Comments
VIRGINIA BEACH, VA: Google will soon make public information about virtually every ship at sea, giving the current location and identity even of American warships. Meanwhile, the company is consulting with the Navy and others about security issues.
UPDATED: (3:30 p.m.) Clarified Google Uses Satellite Technology, Not Building Satellites
Google paid several million dollars for the satellite technology to pinpoint ships’ locations. “These things cost three million dollars for the whole program,” Michael Jones, “Chief Technology Advocate” at Google Ventures, said at the annual Joint Warfighting Conference held by the US Naval Institute and the electronics industry group AFCEA. Google has talked to representatives of 50 navies worldwide about their new technology and has discovered it tracks ships better than their own commanders can. “I watch them and they can’t see themselves,” Jone said. “It angers me as a citizen that I can do this and the entire DoD can’t.”
By: Jonesy - 27th May 2012 at 13:14
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Identification_System
Basically a transponder system that gives position, ident, speed, heading etc. I’ve seen warships with AIS active…watched Daring manoeuvre on a Thursday war a few months back, but, easy enough to spoof them or simply turn them off!.
There are a few sites that rebroadcast live AIS streams onto the net where they have coverage. One is ‘shipais.com’ another is marinetraffic.com’.
By: CoffeeBean - 27th May 2012 at 12:42
I heard they were adding AIS feeds into Google Earth. Not quite the same thing as ‘Google can plot every naval ship afloat’ but I guess thats not quite such a saleable story!
AIS in Google Earth still a cool thing of course!
What is AIS?
By: Jonesy - 26th May 2012 at 08:57
http://defense.aol.com/2012/05/17/google-satellites-can-track-every-ship-at-sea-including-us-na/
I heard they were adding AIS feeds into Google Earth. Not quite the same thing as ‘Google can plot every naval ship afloat’ but I guess thats not quite such a saleable story!
AIS in Google Earth still a cool thing of course!
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May 26, 2012 at 8:05 am