Hi Kingy, I'm very comfortable with my research, buddy. But...

Hi Kingy,

I'm very comfortable with my research, buddy. But thank you for confirming what I already knew (LIDAR capable drones). I only mentioned LIDAR as an example of one common GIS technology (there are many others) that can accompany photometric hardware packages.

There are three points that I was trying to make.

Firstly, high resolution, wide field aerial photometric hardware packages, due the laws of light and physics (and current lens/software technology), must be, by necessity of a certain size (and attendant weight) which, at this point in time is quite large. I will not profess to be a drone expert (ex PPL), but my limited research suggests that drones capable of 30-75kg capacity and 4-6 hours duration are currently scarce and/or very expensive compared to the cheap workhorse that is the likes of a Cessna 210N. No doubt, the boys at Fed Ex, UPS, ebay, etc are already well down the path of helping to bringing such capacity drones to the market. Which will be fantastic, but this leads me to my second point....

So what?! Neither Spookfish or NEA's business model is primarily about the type of aerial platform. Should other aerial platforms (such as UAVs) become cheaper/more efficient to use, then both companies will no doubt look to work their own technology/hardware into such platforms. And who's to say they are not already pursuing technologies that can provide a quantum downsizing of optical hardware without sacrificing resolution...into much smaller packages that can be more readily handled by the current UAV market? My belief is that UAV's and high res GIS photometric packages will increase in capability and shrink in size (respectively) and the 2 will inevitably meet. We then need to filter this through your correct observation about the operational/regulatory framework, which I agree is likely to take some time. How long? I honestly don't know, but I'm guessing a minimum 3-5 years. This possible timeline brings me to my third point...

IMHO, by that time, the business models that are WSR and NEA are likely to be less about photometric technology (or platforms) and become more about leading and developing the commercial vertical markets and the ever increasingly valuable huge and historic data base. Further out, in even a more humble opinion, I could envision the possibility of NEA even outsourcing the technology and capture part of the business to focus on becoming a serious player in the Big Data space. Now that would really be something.

But that's enough. My crystal ball is getting a little overheated.

Cheers,