
Satellite surveillance is being used to gather market-moving information - jamesjyu
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38722872/
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apaprocki
I've heard the technology is also in use to monitor corporate offices. They
can track how many cars are in the parking lot and even what makes/models are
showing up to indicate the rate the company is hiring or laying off workers
and whether the employees are trading up to pricier models.

Similarly, infrared cameras are used to constantly monitor power stations
(e.g. smoke stacks, cooling towers) to gather data on what level of capacity
they are running and if there are any undisclosed shutdowns.

Workers in ports are paid to monitor incoming tankers to record what their
draft is to calculate how much oil/whatever they are carrying. If they are
resourceful they can even gather intel about what % of different grade
materials are on the ships. This is used to track / estimate commodity flows
and pricing.

Data == $$$

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mc32
So what happens where stores have underground parking or multi-level parking
structures (where people seldom park on the topmost floor)?

This story is a year old and also it's been commented on here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2124784>

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qthrul
This has been going on since the time executive window shades would drop and
stock prices would (speculatively) rise. It's just the binoculars work at
longer ranges now and remote sensing isn't just for the military anymore.

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joshu
Not new - I looked at a company doing this sort of research in the early
2000s.

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nivertech
If somebody looking for middleware, which allows you to process large amounts
of aerial / satellite imagery in realtime - please contact me.

Example:

[https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/8489156/1/CLASTR_demos?h=046...](https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/8489156/1/CLASTR_demos?h=0460e8#gallery:0)

Email: zvi AT CLASTR DOT com

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jluan
This is somewhat unrelated, but speaking of UBS, this video came to mind:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx4poQw1mZo> It depicts the Ivy League
finance-jobs-at-all-costs mentality very well.

