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| The rumoured design of the plane. |
To kick off Apples venture into the mapping business Apple has deployed a fleet of airplanes equipped with military-grade cameras to help it create ultra-detailed 3D maps for iOS devices.The cameras are reportedly using technology developed “from declassified missile targeting methods”, and are capable of displaying objects as small as four inches and mapping vertical walls.
The move by Apple was made after Google announced that they were planning to create 3d maps of large metropolitan citiesand make them available on Android devices. To combat Googles move C3 describes its technology as a combination of automated software and advanced algorithms, which enables it to “rapidly assemble extremely precise 3D models, and seamlessly integrate them with traditional 2D maps, satellite images, street-level photography and user-generated images”. According to the Daily Mail, one C3 executive described it as “Google on steroids.
The technology has received quite a large amount of criticism from citizens to privacy campaigners to the tabloids. The daily mail described it as 'being able to record you sunbathing' however they have already been released in over 20 cities including London however they have raised privacy concerns.
Nick Pickles, director of the Big Brother Watch privacy campaign group, told the Sunday Times the new Apple technology was more invasive than Street View because it would "take us over the garden fence.
