[flavius29663]

This is a fascinating idea, congrats. I see major issues with the existing planes: they do not seem designed to be retrofitted with down facing cameras.

Also, near real time HiRes images means a lot of bandwidth that you don't usually have in the air.

[csteubs]

Thank you! You're correct about (most) existing planes--from what I understand, there was a "gentleman's agreement" between cold war powers that kept manufacturers from pursuing those designs. Since 2000, many models have added onboard cameras on the belly and tail for pilot awareness and in-flight entertainment systems.

Our system is 100% internal which allows us to sidestep massive expense that comes with tunnel testing, retrofit, maintenance, etc. Customers using our Beta receive free in-flight wifi for recording out of their window seat for short increments during their flight. We cache the previous image and compare with the new image on the device itself, transmitting only the raw diff which dramatically lowers our bandwidth needs. All orthorectification and advance photogrammetry occurs on-ground, but we outsource a ton of that processing to the edge device.

We're also designing a physical hardware camera array that can be fixed to the window and is about the size of a headphone case. If you're interested in examples, our social media accounts are full of them: https://www.instagram.com/notasatellite/