Mapping tool to put all users in Big Brother seat

TORONTO - New internet-based technology could soon turn regular computer users into armchair spies, a Canadian inventor says.

Vincent Tao, an engineer at Toronto's York University, has invented a mapping and surveillance tool, SAME (see anywhere, map anywhere), which produces images so sharp geographic co-ordinates typed into a website can reveal the make of a car on the street.

Tao says SAME works by taking satellite images of the Earth and combining them with real-time remote sensors that monitor traffic and weather.

The information is reformatted on a searchable website that can capture ground-level images of the Earth with little or no time delay.

The resolution is 60cm - fine enough to determine the make of a car, though not the details of a human face, according to Tao.

"This is real-time streaming technology. It's like [the online directory] MapQuest or the navigation system in your car, but three-dimensional."

The potential applications are broad, he says, including defence, emergency response and environmental monitoring. The technology could become widely available as early as next year.

But the technology also poses concerns, says Veera Rastogi, a lawyer specialising in privacy issues.

"Any surveillance-based technology like this gives rise to the potential for abuse."

Cindy Cowan, director of a Toronto shelter for battered women, echoed Rastogi's concerns, saying the technology could put women at greater risk of abuse.

- REUTERS