A Facebook user has amassed more than 195,000 shares after posting what he claims is a photo “captured by [a] Chinese Satellite with 24.9 billion pixels of quantum technology.” The interactive image allows you to zoom in so intensely that you can see pedestrians' facial expressions. Although incredible imagery, it’s been revealed it was shot from the top of the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai.
The photo is a 360-degree bird's eye view of the city. Rapidly circulating the Internet over the past few days, there’s no denying the quality is remarkable. To be able to zoom in with such clarity that you can identify members of the general public and even car registration number plates is unprecedented. But despite many reports, Fossbytes says usage of words such as “satellite” and “quantum technology,” are misleading and are “rogue terms” included in order to make it appear flashier and thus increase its chances of going viral.
It didn’t help that writer Tracey Lindeman tweeted that the image was taken by satellite. She later corrected herself in a second post.
https://twitter.com/traceylindeman/status/1075155811070967808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1075155811070967808&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ffossbytes.com%2Ftruth-china-24-9-billion-pixel-image-quantum-satellite%2F
The truth of the matter is that the photo was taken by Jingkun Technology, who are a “world-class innovative enterprise that focuses on creative photography and cloud data processing.” It was taken from the Oriental Pearl Tower back in 2015. As per the company’s website, the picture is composed of 195 billion pixels, making it the third largest image in the world.
Try it for yourself and prepare to be impressed right here.
Photo: Jingkun Technology.
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What the point of so much distortion?
It's not about that, it's about the zoomability. If that's such a thing. A technologic achievement.
I do 'gigapixel' with a a rig, but usually just a couple of handfuls of images. Fun to do, clients have used them a few times. That's about it.
People and number plates though. Not something I'd want on my name in case someone somewhere doesn't like it can comes complaining
That Tracey Lindeman is the typical mainstream journalist when it comes to sceince and technology. She just repeats any sciency-sounding claim she hears without any verification ("Ooooh, it's got 'quantum' in it, so it must be true!") . She just showed she lacks a basic understanding of... well, of everything, really. How can anyone believe this picture was shot from a freaking satellite? Are you kidding me? If it was, the satellite would be flying lower than some of the buildings on the picture. It's like Perspective 101, for fox sake! Seriously, she sould just go out and see how the world works outside her Twitter feed.
And then she has the audacity to say she did "a little more digging"... Yeah right, like you did any kind of digging in the first place. Copy-pasting such a ridiculous claim is not "digging", it's not journalism, it's just being lazy and stupid.
I love social media and the opportunities it provides to some, but that also means that any idiot can be a journalist :)
I was pretty impressed.
It zooms like a COOLPIX P900!!!